John van de Ruit, one of South Africa's bestselling authors, was presented with the Nielsen and SAPnet Gold Book Award, a new award introduced this year for exceptional sales to an author, who has achieved continuous sales since the start of the Nielsen BookScan SA panel.
The award was presented to Ziel Bergh, sales manager, Penguin Books (South Africa) on behalf of John van de Ruit at the PASA and SABA Conference (Publisher and Booksellers Associations of South Africa) as part of its annual awards ceremony when booksellers and publishers receive trade recognition from their peers.
When van de Ruit was informed about this recognition he said, "I am honoured to receive this award. Spud: Exit Pursued by a Bear was the final book in the Spud series and I am thrilled that the series has ended on this note."