Kayleigh Betterton, an MA student at Birkbeck, is runner-up in the first Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize at the University of London for her collection of Oscar Wilde material. The prize was won by Hazel Wilkinson, a PhD student in English Literature at University College London, for her collection ‘The everyday canon from Tonson to Penguin’.
The Prize is funded by Anthony Davis, an alumnus of Birkbeck. It is intended to encourage students of the University in the early stages of developing a coherent and interesting book collection. The Prize is supported by Senate House Library (SHL), the Institute of English Studies (IES), and the Antiquarian Booksellers Association. It consists of £500 for the student personally, and £250 for the purchase of a book which the winner chooses for Senate House Library.
Kayleigh was commended for the creative and original way she uses the collection to teach students at Christ the King: Aquinas College, Lewisham. Kayleigh commented: ‘I am over-the-moon to have been awarded the runner-up prize. I think that the award in itself is a fantastic idea. The fact that this prize is aimed at younger people means that it is helping to preserve book collecting as a pastime and secure its longevity for the future. I am hoping to put the prize money towards a first edition of Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, as my A-level classes will be studying the play next year!’
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