A book born from sudden inspiration on a journey, akin to the grand plan for a story about wizards that first seized JK Rowling on a train to London, has beaten the Harry Potter author to win the lucrative Waterstones book of the year. The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry’s acclaimed gothic tale of a mythological beast terrorising a Victorian community, beat Rowling’s script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and was the “overwhelming choice” of the chain’s booksellers. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry review – a compulsive novel of ideas Read moreAnnouncing the prize, Waterstones managing director James Daunt said: “The Essex Serpent blazed as the overwhelming choice by our booksellers to be their book of the year. It has been described as a masterclass of gothic prose and Perry has been hailed as the lost love child of Dickens and Bram Stoker. In The Essex Serpent, widow Cora Seaborne moves with her autistic son to Colchester, where she hears that a mythological creature – once said to roam the local estuary – has returned and is attacking locals.

Source: The Guardian December 01, 2016 00:00 UTC