Two of the six books on the shortlist for the £25,000 Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction are by Irish authors: The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry, set in Butte, Montana, in 1891, and Ferdia Lennon’s Glorious Exploits, set in Syracuse, Sicily, in 412 BC.
Also shortlisted were The Mare by Angharad Hampshire; The Book of Days by Francesca Kay; The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller and The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden, which was also shortlisted for last year’s Booker Prize.
Glorious Exploits won the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2024 and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction.
The shortlist was revealed by way of a treasure hunt video shot at Abbotsford, home to the prize and to Walter Scott himself. The six books were revealed in the historic walled gardens, entrance hall, and grand library of Abbotsford, with the treasure trail ending in Scott’s study at the desk where he wrote many of his most famous works.
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The judges of this year’s prize, chaired by Katie Grant, said: “From the escapades of young combatants in the Peloponnesian war in Sicily in the fifth century BC to a tender story of families isolated at home in the great British winter freeze of 1962/3, the shortlisted novels for this year’s Walter Scott Prize paint a wide literary canvas of richness and subtlety.
“They are a celebration of storytelling, encompassing a tale of revenge and reconciliation in post-occupation Netherlands, a picture of family claustrophobia in Tudor England, an exhilarating cross-country adventure through the wild west, and a revelatory exploration of evil – under a thick social disguise – in 1950s New York. Together the books illustrate the founding principles of the prize, bringing stories set in the past into our own time, through fine writing that is infused with ambition and originality to produce novels guaranteed to live long in the memory.”
Matthew Maxwell Scott, great-great-great-great grandson of Walter Scott, and trustee of Abbotsford, said: “The best historical fiction is not dry fact – it also tells us how the past felt, and holds a mirror to the present. By recognising the very best writing, the aim of the prize is to inspire more people of all ages to discover the joy and value of historical fiction, to give both established and emerging writers a wider readership, and to bring together authors, readers and audiences to celebrate and question each other. It’s therefore wholly appropriate that this shortlist announcement comes direct from Abbotsford, the home of great historical fiction.”
The winner will be revealed on June 12th at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose, Scotland. Each shortlisted author is awarded £1,500.
