News

2024 Longlist announced as Prize ‘comes home’ to Abbotsford

22nd February, 2024

The 2024 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction Longlist is announced, alongside timely news of a change of management to The Abbotsford Trust. The twelve novels in contention for the £25,000 prize are: THE NEW LIFE Tom Crewe (Chatto & Windus) A BETTER PLACE Stephen Daisley (Text Publishing) HUNGRY GHOSTS Kevin Jared Hosein (Bloomsbury) FOR THY… Read More »

Walter Scott Prize Colloquium declared ‘great success’

3rd August, 2023

 The inaugural Walter Scott Prize Colloquium, held at Bowhill House on 16th June and hosted by the Duke of Buccleuch, was branded a great success by all who participated, with comments from writers and participants including ‘one of the most memorable events I’ve done in recent years’, ‘deeply thought-provoking’,  and ‘in a league of… Read More »

Lucy Caldwell wins 2023 Walter Scott Prize for These Days

15th June, 2023

The Belfast writer Lucy Caldwell has won the 2023 Walter Scott Prize for her novel These Days, a story of loss and love set during the aerial bombardment of her home city in 1941, which caused some of the worst urban devastation in the UK in the whole of the Second World War. Her win… Read More »

Devika Ponnambalam interview: I wanted to write my way into a part of the past that seemed unjust, and unfinished somehow

13th June, 2023

Devika Ponnambalam, whose book I Am Not Your Eve gives Paul Gauguin’s muse and child bride Teha’amana a voice, tells us how she feels about being shortlisted I am beyond thrilled to make it through to the shortlist! The profile of the award will bring Teha’amana’s story to a much wider readership, which is truly… Read More »

Simon Mawer interview: “these ancestors left no trace beyond the entries in official documents and a single medal from the Crimean War. What were their stories?”

25th May, 2023

Simon Mawer, shortlisted for the third time for the Prize for Ancestry, tells us how family was the inspiration for his novel I’m delighted to be shortlisted. It is always gratifying to have one’s novels recognised and being shortlisted for a major prize like the Walter Scott is recognition of the highest kind. But for me… Read More »

Robert Harris interview: “A 17th century manhunt. I thought: what if I invent a character who co-ordinated the search?”

18th May, 2023

Robert Harris, shortlisted for the third time for the Prize, tells us what inspired him to write Act of Oblivion. Obviously, I’m very flattered to be shortlisted for the third time. It’s the biggest prize in the world for historical fiction. The first time, for Lustrum, I lost to Hilary Mantel (no disgrace in that!);… Read More »

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17th May, 2023

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Tickets released for Walter Scott Prize events

17th May, 2023

Tickets are now available for the two Walter Scott Prize events at the Borders Book Festival in June – don’t miss this world-class gathering of literary talent. On Thursday 15th June, the main prizegiving event will open the festival at 5.30pm in a thrilling hour of suspense and time travel, in which the winner is… Read More »

The Duchess of Buccleuch

12th May, 2023

The Walter Scott and Young Walter Scott Prizes were deeply saddened to announce the death on 30th April of their patron and co-founder, the Duchess of Buccleuch, known as Bizza to everyone in the wider Prize family. Katie Grant, chair of the judges of the Walter Scott Prize, said: “Historical fiction has lost a great… Read More »

Fiona McFarlane interview: ‘I also rode camels, climbed hills, and learned from the Indigenous owners of the Flinders, the Adnyamathanha”

9th May, 2023

Shortlisted author Fiona McFarlane tells us how she was motivated to write a novel which explores the messy complications of Australian colonial history. It’s an honour to have been shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. All writing is solitary, to some extent, but there’s something particularly solitary, I’ve found, about writing an… Read More »