The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
Honouring the achievements of the founding father of the historical novel, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction is one of the UK’s most prestigious literary prizes. The winner receives £25,000 and shortlisted authors each receive £1,500. Since it was founded seventeen years ago by the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, the Prize has awarded over £450,000 to writers and brought nearly 200 great novels to wider public attention.
The Walter Scott Prize celebrates quality of writing in the English language, and is open to novels published in the previous year in the UK, Ireland or the Commonwealth. Reflecting the subtitle ‘Tis Sixty Years Since’ of Scott’s famous work Waverley, the majority of the storyline must be set at least 60 years ago.
The Prize is managed by The Abbotsford Trust, the independent Scottish Charity responsible for Sir Walter Scott’s extraordinary Borders home, and is supported by Hawthornden Foundation and the Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust and Duke of Buccleuch, in memory of Elizabeth Buccleuch. More about the Prize’s history and Reading Group guides for each of our winners is on our Resources section.
The Young Walter Scott Prize
The Young Walter Scott Prize is the UK’s only creative writing prize dedicated to historical fiction. This annual story-writing competition is for young people aged between 11 and 19, and prizes include a £500 travel grant, an invitation to one of the UK’s best book festivals, and the opportunity to see your work in print in a special anthology. Last year’s winners can be found here. The competition is about to re-open for 2026, so keep watching this page!
The YWSP also runs the Imagining History workshops, in which you can learn how to write historical fiction in amazing spaces throughout the UK, and online. Find out more about Imagining History UK here.
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Alice Jolly wins 2026 Walter Scott Prize
Alice Jolly has won the 2026 Walter Scott Prize for The Matchbox Girl, which the judges said ‘may be the most unusual book you read this year.”- read more here!
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Shortlist Spotlight: Benjamin Wood
Read the last of our Shortlist Spotlight Q&As, featuring the author of Seascraper, here!
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Shortlist Spotlight: Rachel Seiffert
Read shortlisted author Rachel Seiffert’s fascinating account of the real people and records which inspired Once The Deed Is Done.
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Read Graeme Macrae Burnet on Benbecula
Read our fascinating Q&A with Graeme Macrae Burnet about his research and inspirations for Benbecula, shortlisted for this year’s Prize.
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Shortlist Spotlight: Alice Jolly
Alice Jolly, author of The Matchbox Girl, answers our questions!
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Read our Q&A with Jo Harkin
In the first of our Shortlist Spotlights for 2026, Jo Harkin, author of THE PRETENDER, speaks exclusively to WSP about her inspirations for the novel, her writing processes, and what being shortlisted for the Prize means to her. read it here!
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Martha Kearney joins the judging panel for 2027
The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction is delighted to announce that award-winning journalist and broadcaster Martha Kearney will be joining the judging panel for 2027.
Martha joins Chair Katie Grant and fellow judges Jim Naughtie, Elizabeth Laird, James Holloway and Rosi Byard-Jones on the panel to decide the winner of the £25,000 Prize, awarded in June 2027 at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose, Scotland.
On joining the judging panel, Martha said:
“Being plunged into the lives of people and places from the past is one of the greatest pleasures for a reader. I have loved historical fiction since I was a child, so I was delighted to be asked to be a judge for the Walter Scott Prize 2027. I have read many of the prize winners in the past and so I really applaud the way the Prize celebrates ambition, innovation and originality.”
Martha is best known for her six-year tenure presenting BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme. In 2024 Martha stepped down from Today to take up two new regular roles at BBC Radio 4, fronting her own interview series This Natural Life, and joining the presenting team on Open Country.
In a career that spans almost 4 decades, Martha has presented several of the UK’s longest-running political and current-affairs programmes, including BBC2’s Newsnight, nearly a decade at BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, and eleven years hosting BBC Radio 4’s The World at One.
Beyond the newsroom, Martha has fronted documentaries about history, literature, nature, and art, has won the Sony Radio Bronze Award, and has been nominated for a BAFTA for her coverage of the Northern Ireland peace process. In 2025, Martha was awarded a CBE for her outstanding services to journalism and broadcasting.