From left: New Zealand Common Wealth Writer Prize winner Lloyd Jones, Best First Book winner DY Bechard and Commonwealth director Dr Mark Collins share a moment with Calabash founder Colin Channer.

The winner of the 21st Commonwealth Writers' Prize was announced this past Sunday, at the seventh annual Calabash Literary Festival, held in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth. New Zealand's Lloyd Jones emerged winner of the prize, valued at £10,000 for overall Best Book for Mister Pip, a novel about a teacher who uses literature to help children endure chaos on a war-torn Pacific island.

Organisers announced Sunday that Jones' book, Mr Pip, was about a teacher who educates a small village's children by reading them the Dickensian classic, Great Expectations. After the book is destroyed in rebel fighting, he encourages them to retell the story from remembered fragments.

"This mesmerising story shows how books can change lives in utterly surprising ways," said Nicholas Hasluck, chair of the judging panel.

Jones, who lives in Wellington, is the first New Zealand writer to win the best book prize since Janet Frame won for The Carpathians in 1989.

The Best First Book award, worth £5000, went to DY Béchard from Canada for Vandal Love, a wide-ranging, spellbinding story which follows generations of a French-Canadian family afflicted with a curse that causes their children to be born either giants or runts, which is ultimately a story of family, identity and the creation of a space in an unwelcoming world.

The Commonwealth Writers' Prize is a prestigious award for fiction written in English, by both established and new writers of the Commonwealth of former British colonies, to take their works to a global audience. It is presented annually by the Commonwealth Foundation with the support of the Macquire Foundation.

Although the final prize programme has been previously held in Jamaica, in 1998, this was the first time it was incorporated into the activities of the festival, which was founded in 2001 by three Jamaicans - novelist Colin Channer, poet Kwame Dawes and producer Justine Henzell. Last year's final programme was hosted in Australia, as part of the cultural festival of the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Dr Mark Collins, director of the Commonwealth Foundation, remarking on the Commonwealth Prize announcement at Calabash, said: "We are delighted to be taking part in the renowned Calabash International Literary Festival. This partnership emphasises the foundation's commitment to promoting high quality world literature to a global audience."

Said Channer: "'The Commonwealth Writers' Prize is one of the most significant literary prizes in the world, and competition between writers is strong. The Calabash Literary Foundation is really thrilled to be the foundation's partner in celebrating global excellence in literature at Calabash 2007.
This is a significant moment for a festival that dared to re-imagine what a literary festival could be. It's also a significant moment for Jamaica, the Caribbean and the writers and literature from this part of the world."

Mr Pip and Vandal Love were selected from an ecumenical field of eight regional Best Book and Best First Book winners from four Commonwealth regions: Africa; Canada and the Caribbean; Europe and South Asia; and South-East Asia and the Pacific.

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