It’s just over a month until the longlist for the The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2025 is announced.
The prize is open to novels written in English and first published in 2024 in the UK, Ireland or the Commonwealth. Also eligible are novels written in English by authors of British nationality first published outside the UK, Ireland or the Commonwealth in 2024 but also published in the UK in 2024. (Sadly that rules out James by Percival Everett, By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult and Burma Sahib by Paul Theroux as they are all American, and The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden as she is Dutch. Josie Ferguson, author of The Silence in Between may be ineligible as well having been born in Sweden.)
The majority of the storyline, i.e. over 50%, must take place at least 60 years ago. The judges are looking for ‘ambition, innovation and enduring appeal, with quality of writing as the deciding factor’. Sounds good to me.
As in previous years, I’ll attempt to read all the longlisted novels I haven’t already read before the shortlist is announced on 15th April. Wish me luck with that as I rarely manage it.
So, time to speculate… Some of the books in my list I haven’t yet read but I’ve picked them based on reviews they’ve received. Links from the titles will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.
Check back when the longlist is announced to see if any of my picks match the judges’ choices.
- Clear by Carys Davies
- Precipice by Robert Harris
- Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd
- The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry
- The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
- The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier
- Karla’s Choice by Nick Harkaway
- The Mischief Makers by Elisabeth Gifford
- The Betrayal of Thomas True by A. J. West
- Long Island by Colm Tóibín
- The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor
- Peggy by Rebecca Godfrey, with Leslie Jamison (unsure if this will be eligible as the author sadly died before the novel was completed & it was finished by her friend)
Are any of your favourites on my list? Which other historical fiction novels published in 2024 do you think deserve a place on the longlist?
What Cathy Read Next... 
Of the books I’ve read that qualify, I think Precipice and Gabriel’s Moon are the most likely to be on the longlist as both of those authors seem popular with the judges. Possibly A Woman of Opinion by Sean Lusk, as he has also been longlisted before. I suspect there’ll be a lot of books neither of us have heard of as well, though, as usual!
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I did think of A Woman of Opinion and can’t really work out now why I didn’t put in on my list. My list started out longer but I realised I needed to remove some because they didn’t fit the rules. You’re right, there are always books & authors I’ve never heard of, let alone read, on the list.
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I’d love to see Clear and The Land in Winter on the list.
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Definitely fingers crossed for both of those
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I’ve only read The Glassmaker and The Mischief Makers. I wonder if The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable might be on it? Haven’t actually read it but it seemed very popular.
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Yes, that one crossed my mind and I don’t really know why I didn’t include it as I have read it. It will probably appear on the longlist now!
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