Tag: Winston Graham Historical Prize

Book Review – Seascraper by Benjamin Wood

whatcathyreadnextLeave a comment

About the Book

Thomas lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother in Longferry, working his grandpa’s trade as a shanker. He rises early to take his horse and cart to the grey, gloomy beach and scrape for shrimp, spending the afternoon selling his wares, trying to wash away the salt and scum, pining for Joan Wyeth down the street, and rehearsing songs on his guitar. At heart, he is a folk musician, but it remains a private dream.

When a striking visitor turns up, bringing the promise of Hollywood glamour, Thomas is shaken from the drudgery of his days and begins to see a different future. But how much of what the American claims is true, and how far can his inspiration carry Thomas?

Haunting and timeless, this is the story of a young man hemmed in by his circumstances, striving to achieve fulfilment far beyond the world he knows.

Format: Hardback (176 pages) Publisher: Viking
Publication date: 17th July 2025 Genre: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction

Find Seascraper on Goodreads

Purchase Seascraper from Bookshop.org [Disclosure: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops]

My Review

Seascraper, winner of the Winston Graham Historical Prize 2026, is a book that simply oozes atmosphere. Although set in the early 1960s, it has a timeless quality.

Twenty-year old Thomas scrapes for shrimps in the same way his grandfather did before him, painstakingly with horse and cart, often with little to show for it at the end of a session. It’s tough, grimy, soul-destroying work. We get the gritty details of his life: the ingrown toenails, the reek of sweat, fish guts and horse dung, the salt-encrusted clothing. But there are lovely touches too such as Thomas’s tender care for his horse.

Thomas’s days are governed by the rhythm of the tides and by the weather. He navigates the potentially treacherous, shifting sands by a combination of instinct and memory. Most other shankers have switched to motor rigs but Thomas hasn’t the funds to buy one even if he wanted to. Instead by necessity he remains ‘steadfast to the old ways’.

A sense of being trapped permeates the novel.Thomas’s mother gave birth to him out of wedlock and has been ostracised by the community as a result, albeit unfairly. Her life is one of unending domestic chores with only the odd night out providing fleeting opportunities for company. Thomas harbours ambitions to be a folk musician but lacks the confidence even to tell his mother that he owns a guitar, let alone to perform in public. Instead he keeps his guitar hidden away in the stable, practising in secret.

Then, out of nowhere, the possibility of a different future appears in the shape of Edgar Acheson, a Hollywood movie director with a dream of his own, namely to restore his reputation by directing a film adaptation of a cherished rather otherwordly book. He believes that Thomas’s stretch of beach is the perfect location. ‘It’s sort of funny… I feel I’ve got the strongest sense of what this beach could give the picture. There’s a mood out here – it’s absolutely right. I mean it’s like I’ve been out here before.’

He offers what to Thomas is a life-changing sum of money if he will take him out on the beach. Edgar’s exuberance overcomes any misgivings Thomas may have; he knows what dangers lie out there. It turns out he’s right to have been wary because what he experiences that night is an uncanny combination of distorted version of reality and wish fulfillment. Eventually illusions are shattered but there’s also a tantalising glimpse of the possibility of a different future.

I’m not quite sure how the author managed to capture so much in so few pages but he did, brilliantly. Seascraper has a quiet intensity that is completely mesmerising and is fully deserving of all the plaudits it has received.

In three words: Atmospheric, immersive, poignant
Try something similar: Clear by Carys Davies

About the Author

Benjamin Wood was born in 1981 and grew up in Merseyside. Seascraper is his fifth novel. His previous works have been shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, the Commonwealth Book Prize, the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the RSL Encore Award, the CWA Gold Dagger Award and the European Union Prize for Literature. In 2014, he won France’s Prix du roman Fnac. He is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at King’s College London, and lives in Surrey with his wife and sons.

Connect with Benjamin
Website

Book Review – The Pretender by Jo Harkin

whatcathyreadnextLeave a comment

About the Book

The year is 1483 and England is in peril. The much-despised Richard III is not long for the throne, and the man who will become Henry VII stands poised to snatch the crown for himself. But for twelve-year-old John Collan, living in a remote village with his widowed father, these matters seem far away.

But history has other plans for John.

Stolen from his family, exiled – first to Oxford, then to Burgundy, and then Ireland – and apprenticed to a series of unscrupulous political operators, he finds himself groomed for power; not as John Collan, but as Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick – and rightful heir to the throne.

Far from home at the Irish court, preparing for a war that will see him become king or die trying, John has just his wits – and the slippery counsel of his host’s daughter, the unconventional Joan – to navigate the choppy waters ahead.

Format: Hardcover (464 pages) Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publication date: 24th April 2025 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Pretender on Goodreads

Purchase The Pretender from Bookshop.org [Disclosure: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops]

My Review

The Pretender was one of the five books shortlisted for the Winston Graham Historical Prize 2026 and is also longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.

The book is set during the latter years of the Wars of the Roses, the conflict between two rival branches of the House of Plantagenet – York and Lanaster – over succession to the English throne. The Pretender is a book for those who like their historical fiction full of authentic detail about events, people and places, but not so much so that it feels like a history lesson.

What the author does exceptionally well is to marry historical authenticity with storytelling that is full of wit and humanity. This is chiefly because we view events through the eyes of a young man, John Collan, who finds himself unexpectedly at the centre of things in this chaotic period. Suddenly he’s told he’s not the person he thought he was, the son of a farmer, but the son of the Duke of Clarence exchanged at birth for his own safety, with a claim to the throne. Having said that some things now make sense to him, such as the fact he looks completely different from his two brothers, or rather the boys he thought were his brothers. Understandable then he should wonder, ‘Wouldn’t I know who I was, if I was. . . wouldn’t I feel it? Like an Earl?’

John – sorry Lambert, sorry Edward, Duke of Warwick – is someone the reader will find it easy to empathise with as he comes to terms with how his life has been completely upended. His new persona means facing challenges much more perilous than his previous battles with the farmyard goat. And it means a new life, a new family, new surroundings and, for a lot of the time, perpetual bewilderment.

After a brief period in Oxford, which ends in the most dramatic way, John finds himself crossing the Channel to the sumptuous palace of his aunt Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy. Suddenly he’s expected to act like an Earl but he hasn’t the first idea how to do that, and there aren’t even any books in the library to help him. If you’ve ever gone to a formal dinner and felt intimidated by all the cutlery and glasses, you’ll completely sympathise with John’s confusion about dining etiquette. Or that he’s now expected to do nothing for himself, is never alone but constantly waited on by attendants. It’s perhaps not surprising then that the garderobe becomes his sanctuary. Because his existence must be kept secret, he is confined to the interior of the palace, the layout of which he never really masters.

Then he’s off once again, this time to Ireland to the home of Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare. Kildare is a brilliantly imagined character – loud, lusty, hot-tempered, able to go from the rough and tumble of play with his children one minute to ordering the death of a man the next. Then there’s his daughter Joan. John is dazzled by her beauty but constantly awed by her ruthlessness and ability to manipulate people to achieve her own ends. Often it results in their ends.

If the book does have a fault it’s that it gets bogged down, especially in the middle third of the book. Perhaps that’s understandable given the frequency with which allegiances change, revolts arise and are quashed, all of which must be explained. And sometimes information is relayed by characters to other characters, rather than witnessed directly although this does provide the opportunity to introduce humour, with official announcements often greeted with suspicion or ridicule by those listening.

‘Oyez, oyez, oyez! Regard, townsfolk, this letter from the king! Be warned, you divers seditious and evil persons in London and elsewhere within our realm, who enforce themselves daily to sow seeds of noise and dislander against our person, to abuse the multitude of our subjects and avert their minds from us, some by setting up bills, some by spreading false rumours, some by messages and sending forth of lies, some by bold and presumptuous open speech and communication. The king did not kill his wife!

Townsfolk: Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?

Apart from a few reservations, I really enjoyed The Pretender. I loved the humour, the colourful characters, the idiosyncratic mix of archaic and modern day language. And, of course, I loved John. I’d be ‘astonied’ if you don’t too.

‘What is he: a peasant, an earl, a bastard?’ Inspired by the true story of Lambert Simnel, The Pretender immerses the reader in the life of a young man who finds himself a pawn in a game that he never wanted to play a part in.

In three words: Witty, authentic, engaging
Try something similar: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

About the Author

Jo Harkin studied literature at university. She daydreamed her way through various jobs in her twenties before becoming a full-time writer. Her debut novel Tell Me an Ending was a New York Times book of the year.

She lives in Berkshire, England. (Photo: Gooreads author page)