Christine Dwyer Hickey wins the 2020 Walter Scott Prize for The Narrow Land

12th June, 2020

The Irish author Christine Dwyer Hickey has won the eleventh Walter Scott Prize for her novel The Narrow Land, in which she explores the marriage of the artists Edward and Jo Hopper.

The Judges of the Prize said:

‘It’s a risky business, portraying the marriage of two artists, particularly when both the marriage and the art have already been picked over by biographers and art historians. Christine Dwyer Hickey has embraced the risk and created a masterpiece. In The Narrow Land, she reaches into the guts of the marriage of Jo and Edward Hopper and into the heart of the creative impulse itself. And more, much more. Quietly, inexorably, and with pinpoint perception, our winner has brought to dramatic life not just the Hoppers’ intimate eruptions but the tensions and complexities in those around them, from two young boys scarred by war to the transient summer crowd at Cape Cod, and though this forensic lens we glimpse the upheavals that were to shake all Americans in the post-war world. With the pull of a shifting sea, The Narrow Land drew the judges back again and again, each reading richer than the one before.’

The judging panel for the 2020 Prize comprised Elizabeth Buccleuch, James Holloway, Elizabeth Laird, James Naughtie, Kirsty Wark, and chair Katie Grant.

In normal circumstances the prize would be awarded at a live event at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose, Scotland, but because of lockdown restrictions the winner was announced live on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row arts programme on the evening of Friday 12th June, with Christine Dwyer Hickey joining the programme from her home in Dublin, shortly followed by an interview on RTE Radio 1’s Arena programme. It is hoped that a special event can be held at Scott’s Borders home Abbotsford in the Autumn, honouring all the authors together.

Christine Dwyer Hickey said in her video acceptance speech:

‘Writing a novel takes a big chunk of one’s life – The Narrow Land was six years in the making – which is why I really, really appreciate this recognition. I would like to send my thoughts to a grave in a hillside cemetery in Nyack, overlooking the Hudson river, a few miles from New York City, where the artists Edward and Jo Hopper lie, and where I hope they have at last found peace. I also hope they will forgive me the intrusion.’

The Narrow Land edged novels by Joseph O’Connor, Isabella Hammad, James Meek, Tim Pears, and Marguerite Poland to the top slot. All six shortlisted authors are celebrated in a specially-commissioned video, posted here, in which they each read from their own books. Award-winning local Borders bookshop Mainstreet Books is joining the celebrations, offering a free Walter Scott Prize book bag to those purchasing the shortlist by mail order.

Christine Dwyer Hickey receives a cheque for £25,000 (€28,000) and an original framed print by the renowned photographer and kinsman of the great writer, Walter Dalkeith. The print is of the Borders landmark Smailholm Tower, described by Sir Walter in his poem Marmion as ‘the mightiest work of human power’.

Congratulations, Christine!

You can watch our video of the Walter Scott Prize announcement here.