2027 Judges

Rosi Byard-Jones

Rosi Byard-Jones was one of the inaugural winners of the Young Walter Scott Prize in 2015.  She studied Japanese at SOAS University of London and completed a master’s degree at the University of Cambridge, focusing on Korean minority women’s literature in Japan. After a couple of years at the London bureau of Kyodo News, a Japanese news wire agency, she is now a key member of the team running the Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), Birmingham.  She joined the YWSP judging panel in 2024, and joins the WSP judging panel in 2025.

Martha Kearney

Martha Kearney 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.

Katie Grant - Chair

Katie Grant,  the Chair of Judges, is a novelist, columnist and Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund (RLF), writing under the name Katharine Grant. She lives in Glasgow but grew up on the edge of the Lancashire moors. Her book Blood Red Horse, the first of the de Granville Trilogy, was a Booklist Top Ten Historical Fiction for Youth and a USBBY-CBC Outstanding International Book for 2006. The sequel, Green Jasper was shortlisted for the 2006 Royal Mail Scottish Children’s book award in the 13-16 category. She has ten novels published to date (Puffin, Quercus, Virago in UK and Walker & Company and Henry Holt in USA), and Sedition, her first novel for adults was longlisted for the 2014 Desmond Elliott prize. Katie was the RLF Writing Fellow at the University of Glasgow (2011-2014). She runs creative writing workshops and as an RLF Consultant Fellow runs workshops and structured writing retreats for academics at all levels. She also founded the RLF Bridge, a writing development programme for pupils in their final year at school. She has written columns for most newspapers in Scotland and is an occasional book reviewer, including for the New York Times. Katie joined the WSP judging panel in 2017 and became chair in 2020.

James Holloway

 James Holloway was Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery from 1997 to 2012, and began his career there in 1983.  James graduated from the Courtauld Institute of Art at London University, has honorary doctorates from Edinburgh Napier University and the University of Edinburgh, and was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty, The Queen in 2012. He is a trustee of The Abbotsford Trust (Sir Walter Scott’s home in the Borders), the Honorary Curator of the National Trust for Scotland and is a Director of the Historic Environment Scotland Foundation and the Fleming Wyfold Art Foundation. He is also a consultant with Bonham’s auctioneers.  James joined the WSP judging panel in 2017.

Elizabeth Laird

Elizabeth Laird is an award-winning children’s author. Born in New Zealand to Scottish parents, she has lived and worked in Ethiopia, Malaysia, Iraq, Lebanon and Austria, and has travelled extensively in India, Palestine, Jordan and Pakistan. She has written over 30 novels, many of which tell the stories of children from those regions.  In 1996, she worked with the British Council to set up the Ethiopian Story Collecting project and over 300 stories collected from traditional Ethiopian storytellers are now available to read in English and Amharic at www.ethiopianfolktales.com.  Her own books have been translated into more than 20 languages and have won or been shortlisted for many awards, including the Children’s Book Award, the Scottish Children’s Book Award, and the CILIP Carnegie Medal.   Her teachers’ notes for books including the story of two Syrian refugees, Welcome to Nowhere and A House Without Walls, have now been downloaded hundreds of times from her website www.elizabethlaird.co.uk.
Elizabeth Laird has been a judge of the Walter Scott Prize since its inception in 2009, and is also a founding judge of the Young Walter Scott Prize.

James Naughtie

James Naughtie is one of the country’s best-known broadcasters. He presented Today on BBC Radio 4 for 21 years, and is now a special correspondent for BBC News. He also presents Radio 4’s monthly Bookclub. During his career, Naughtie has anchored BBC radio coverage of British and American presidential elections, and written and introduced numerous documentaries for BBC radio and television. He has written books on contemporary politics and classical music, and his latest novel in the Will Flemying thriller series was published in March 2023.  Jim joined the Walter Scott Prize judging panel in 2016.