Dani Garavelli wins Anne Brown prize at Wigtown Book Festival

Dani Garavelli won the inaugural award for her essay The Bequest

Journalist Dani Garavelli has won the inaugural edition of a national essay prize in honour of former Wigtown Book Festival chairwoman Anne Brown.

Her work The Bequest was described as a "beautiful" piece exploring her relationship with her Italian heritage.

The prize - in association with the BBC - was launched following Ms Brown's death earlier this year.

Ms Garavelli said she could not believe she had been chosen as winner of the £1,500 award.

The prize was set up in memory of Anne Brown who died earlier this year

"I was just so thrilled to be shortlisted, to see my name alongside so many writers whose work I absolutely love and respect," she said.

"It is about something that happened in my childhood and how that then influenced my relationship with Italy and my Italian heritage which is quite conflicted and quite a difficult relationship."

Festival artistic director Adrian Turpin said he believed Ms Brown would have enjoyed the winning work.

Adrian Turpin said Ms Garavelli's essay was a "fantastic piece of writing"

"It is a beautiful essay that she has written called The Bequest which looks at her Italian Scottish heritage, it looks at the death of her father," he said.

"It extracts from that to talk about how she feels about that relationship to Italy and to her family."

He said it was a "fantastic piece of writing".

"The lovely thing about it is I think Anne would have particularly appreciated it as she was very fond of Italy and she was very tuned in to journalism in Scotland," he added.

"So I think she would feel very pleased that Dani came away with the prize."

Anne Brown's children - Richard Brown and Jo Lawrence - were in Wigtown for the award ceremony

She was presented with the prize and a trophy - designed by artist Astrid Jaekel - by Anne Brown's daughter, Jo Lawrence.

Her son, Richard Brown, said his mother had been a "tireless champion" of the book festival.

He said the prize was an excellent way to remember her in a way that reflected her interests.

As well as the main award, the judges also gave a special commendation to Jemma Neville for her essay Away with Birds, an account of losing a new-born baby during the pandemic.