The Borders Book Festival

The annual Borders Book Festival in Melrose, Scotland, is traditionally the venue for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction winner announcement in June. 

Set in the shadow of Melrose Abbey, in the beautiful Scottish Borders, the Borders Book Festival is one of the UK’s most prestigious book festivals, with four days of talks, readings and performances by a host of world-class speakers, writers and entertainers.  The full programme, and news of the 2024 festival, is on their website.

At 2023’s festival, the winner of the 2023 Walter Scott Prize was revealed at a live ticketed event on Thursday 15th June, at which the winners of the Young Walter Scott Prize were also honoured.   Shortlisted authors then discussed their work and a distinguished panel debated future directions of historical fiction in a Colloquium at Bowhill House on Friday 15th June.  A full gallery of photographs of the events can be found here.