Horatio Clare and his editor Penny Thomas have won the 2016 Branford Boase Award given annually to the author and editor of the outstanding debut novel for children, for Aubrey and the Terrible Yoot published by independent Firefly Press.
Aubrey and the Terrible Yoot describes how Aubrey, a ‘rambunctious’ boy, receives help from the wild animals in the woods around his home to break the depression that is weighing down his father. The source of the depression is a beetle, the Terrible Yoot, and through their encounter with it, Aubrey and his father discover the infinite wonder of the world. It is illustrated throughout in black and white by Jane Matthews.