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Ruth Jones gets award for new book at Hay Festival

Paul Pigott
BBC News
Hay Festival Ruth is standing on a stage with Hay Festival and the festival logo in white on a big screen behind her. she is smiling for the camera and is holding a jewellery box . She has long brown hair tied back and is wearing a beige short sleeve blouse. Julie has one arm around her and is smiling. She has shoulder length blonde hear and is smiling. She is wearing dark rimmed glasses and has on a patterned yellow dress. Hay Festival
Ruth Jones, pictured with Hay Festival chief executive Julie Finch, was one of three writers presented with a prize

Actress and writer Ruth Jones has been awarded this year's Hay Festival medal for drama.

The Gavin and Stacey co-creator was honoured in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, where she was speaking about her new novel.

War Horse author Michael Morpurgo won the fiction medal, while British-Turkish novelist Elif Shafak won the medal for prose.

"We are honoured to celebrate three exceptional storytellers," said Hay Festival chief executive Julie Finch, who said the three winners had "each done much to push the boundaries of contemporary writing and spread the joy of stories here and around the world".

Jones, from Bridgend, writes about finding joy in unlikely connections in her new book, By Your Side.

Morpurgo is one of UK's best-known children's authors, writing more than150 books and serving as Children's Laureate.

Shafak's most recent novel, There Are Rivers in the Sky, is the story of three lives – in Victorian London, 2014 Turkey and 2018 London – connected by a single drop of water.