The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2025 – Who Will Win? @waltscottprize

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WalterScottPrize

The winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Fiction will be announced later today at the Borders Book Festival and, excitingly, I will be there!

I’ve read all the books on the shortlist and here are some brief thoughts on each of them. They are shown in the order in which I read them.

The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry (Canongate) – An enthralling, skilfully crafted combination of love story and adventure story set in 19th century Montana. I was completely captivated by Tom and Polly’s story which, although you suspect is doomed from the start, you can’t help hoping will turn out differently. ‘…And wasn’t it a remarkable turn of events that showed love and death they co-exist in our violent and sentimental world. They might even depend one on the other.’

The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller (Sceptre) – The story of two couples – Eric and Irene, and Bill and Rita – exploring their hopes and fears, and revealing the fractures in their relationships that threaten to split wide open. Set in a remote part of the West Country during the extreme winter of 1962, there’s a real feeling of not just physical isolation but emotional as well.

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Viking) – Set in the rural Dutch province of Overijssel fifteen years since the Second World War the book explores, through the intense and intimate relationship between two women, how secrets have a way of finding their way to the surface.

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon (Fig Tree) – A wonderfully imaginative and comic story (albeit with darker undertones) set in Syracuse during the Peloponnesian War. Told with an Irish lilt, it features best friends, Lampo and Gelon, who embark on an ambitious project to stage a play by Euripides in a quarry using Athenian prisoners as their cast.

The Book of Days by Francesca Kay (Swift Press) – The book is set in a small village at the end of Henry VIII’s reign where daily life is governed by the rhythm of the changing seasons and the rituals of religious devotion. That is until events in the outside world intrude. Beautifully written with a hypnotic quality because of its gentle pace.

The Mare by Angharad Hampshire (Northodox Press) – The incredibly powerful and unflinching story, told in fictional form, of Hermine Braunsteiner who worked as a concentration camp guard at Ravensbrück and was the first person to be extradited from the Unites States for Nazi war crimes.

Predicting a winner is difficult. Both The Safekeep and Glorious Exploits have received a lot of attention, especially as they’re debut novels.  If you’d asked me a couple of days ago to pick a winner, I’d have said The Heart in Winter.  Now it’s The Mare.

Do you have a winner from the shortlist?

#WWWWednesday – 11th June 2025

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Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!

What I’m Currently Reading

I’m listening to the audiobook of the first of my 20 Books of Summer 2025, reading a book from my NetGalley shelf and a book for a blog tour.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday)

Ruby Lennox was conceived grudgingly by Bunty and born while her father, George, was in the Dog and Hare in Doncaster, telling a woman in an emerald dress and a D cup that he wasn’t married. Bunty had never wanted to marry George, but there she was, stuck in a flat above the pet shop in an ancient street beneath York Minster, with sensible and sardonic Patrica, aged five; greedy, cross-patch Gillian, who refused to be ignored; and Ruby…

Ruby tells the story of the family, from the day at the end of the nineteenth century when a travelling French photographer catches frail beautiful Alice and her children, like flowers in amber, to the startling, witty, and memorable events of Ruby’s own life.

The Surgeon’s House by Jody Cooksley (Allison & Busby via NetGalley)

London, 1883. The brutal murder of Rose Parmiter seems, at first glance, to be a random and senseless act. Rose was the beloved cook at Evergreen House, a place of refuge for women and children, a place from which they can start their lives afresh.

Proprietor Rebecca Harris is profoundly shocked by the death of her dear friend and alarmed at the mysterious events which begin to unfold shortly afterwards. Could the past be casting a shadow on the present? The malign legacy of the Everley family who called Evergreen home, cannot be ignored.

After two further deaths it becomes clear there is an evil presence infecting their sanctuary, and Rebecca must draw out the poison of the past so the Evergreen residents can finally make peace with the darkness in their lives.

Kane by Graham Hurley (Head of Zeus)

Washington DC, 1941. Quincy Kane, hero of the Boston Police Department and scourge of organised crime, is now a Secret Service agent. His meteoric rise means he’s trusted to guard the most important man in the country: President Roosevelt.

Then Imperial Japan attacks the US naval base at Pearl Harbor.

For Kane, American entry to World War II means the most crucial mission of his career: a complex scheme of bribery and subterfuge that will see him cross the Atlantic. He could change the course of the conflict and save thousands of Allied lives.

First, though, he will have to survive a return to the world of organised crime via the City of Angels itself: Los Angeles, where every gangster has Quincy Kane in their crosshairs.

What I’ve Just Read

The Book of Days by Francesca Kay (Swift Press)

The Mare by Angharad Hampshire (Northodox Press)

Hermine Braunsteiner was the first person to be extradited from the Unites States for Nazi war crimes. She was one of a few thousand women to work as a female concentration camp guard. Prisoners nicknamed her ‘the Mare’ because she kicked people to death. When the camps were liberated, Hermine escaped and fled back to Vienna.

Many years later, she met Russell Ryan, an American man holidaying in Austria. They fell in love, married, and moved to New York, where she lived a quiet life as an adoring suburban housewife, beloved friend and neighbour. No one, not even her husband, knew the truth of her past, until one day a New York Times journalist knocked on their door, blowing their lives apart.

The Mare tells Hermine and Russell’s story for the first time in fiction. It explores how an ordinary woman could descend so quickly into evil, examining the role played by government propaganda, ideology, fear and cognitive dissonance, and asks why her husband chose to stay with her despite discovering what she had done. (Review to follow)

What I’ll Be Reading Next

SPIT by David Brennan (epoque press)

Welcome to the village of Spit, where Danny Mulcahy is losing the run of himself, and where, as he and his friends dream of escaping, an unexpected death sets the rumour mill into motion.

Suffering an unexplained, perpetual banishment the Spook of Spit is watching everyone and everything – nothing goes unnoticed. Bearing witness to the village’s half-truths and suppressed secrets, fragments of its own dark and obscured history are unveiled.

As events spiral out of control, the past, present and future are set to collide. Can there be redemption for past deeds? How do you escape when you are fated to remain? What does it take to break free from the confines of Spit?