2016 Longlist announced!
25th February, 2016
The 2016 longlist for the Walter Scott Prize has been announced. Thirteen books are in contention, with settings as diverse as ancient Rome, wartime Europe, and Japan, Canada and Australia in previous centuries. The longlist is:
A GOD IN RUINS by Kate Atkinson
SWEET CARESS by William Boyd
A PETROL SCENTED SPRING by Ajay Close
A PLACE CALLED WINTER by Patrick Gale
DICTATOR by Robert Harris
DEVASTATION ROAD by Jason Hewitt
DEATH AND MR PICKWICK by Stephen Jarvis
MRS ENGELS by Gavin McCrea
END GAMES IN BORDEAUX by Allan Massie
TIGHTROPE by Simon Mawer
SIGNS FOR LOST CHILDREN by Sarah Moss
CURTAIN CALL by Anthony Quinn
SALT CREEK by Lucy Treloar
The longlist announcement coincides with the appointment of two new judges, Jackie Kay and James Naughtie. A shortlist for the 2016 prize will be announced in March, and the winner is announced at the Borders Book Festival on 18th June.
The Chair of Judges, Alistair Moffat, commented on behalf of the panel:
“2015 saw both a flowering and broadening of the historical fiction genre that is the backbone of the Walter Scott Prize. The thirteen books that make up our long list are the most illuminating, entertaining, and sweeping of those submissions that fitted our rules on timespan. The judges and readers who collate the long list had to make difficult decisions, and also had to ask pertinent questions about the nature of fiction that flows between the past and the present. What is the relationship between contemporary recollection and the reliability of memory? Where does history cease and myth begin?
“Walter Scott was the first in a long line of authors who have transformed history into stories that transport the reader straight into the epicentre of another time and place, where characters live and feel, and are pounded by forces beyond themselves. We believe that this is the central strength of the books that make up our 2016 longlist, and we salute the authors that make this great literary genre thrive and move forward.”