The prestigious Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction has unveiled its longlist for 2024, showcasing a diverse array of twelve novels vying for the £25,000 award. The announcement was accompanied by significant news that the Prize will now be managed by The Abbotsford Trust, marking a new chapter in its history.
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This year’s contenders span a wide range of settings and eras, from fifteenth-century Norwich to the swinging sixties of London and Paris.
Walter Scott Prize longlist
The longlisted novels are:
- “The New Life” by Tom Crewe (Chatto & Windus)
- “A Better Place” by Stephen Daisley (Text Publishing)
- “Hungry Ghosts” by Kevin Jared Hosein (Bloomsbury)
- “For Thy Great Pain, Have Mercy on My Little Pain” by Victoria MacKenzie (Bloomsbury)
- “Music in the Dark” by Sally Magnusson (John Murray)
- “Cuddy” by Benjamin Myers (Bloomsbury)
- “My Father’s House” by Joseph O’Connor (Harvill Secker)
- “The Fraud” by Zadie Smith (Hamish Hamilton)
- “Mister Timeless Blyth” by Alan Spence (Tuttle)
- “The House of Doors” by Tan Twan Eng (Canongate)
- “In the Upper Country” by Kai Thomas (Penguin Canada)
- “Absolutely and Forever” by Rose Tremain (Chatto & Windus)
The 2024 judging panel, chaired by Katie Grant and including James Holloway, Elizabeth Laird, James Naughtie, Kirsty Wark, and Saira Shah, praised the longlist for its broad temporal and geographical scope, reflecting the global reach and historical depth of the genre.
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Katie Grant, chair of judges, expressed her enthusiasm for this year’s selection: “This year’s longlist sweeps us from one end of the world to the other, and from the Dark Ages to the twentieth century – almost a millennium-and-a-half. … From the epic to the intimate, … in each book emotions run deep.”
Walter Scott Prize changes management
In a notable development, the management of the Walter Scott Prize will transition to The Abbotsford Trust, the charity responsible for the preservation of Sir Walter Scott’s home. This move, supported by the Hawthornden Foundation and the Duke of Buccleuch, aims to further cement the Prize’s reputation and honor the legacy of Scott, considered the inventor of the historical novel genre.
The Duke of Buccleuch, reflecting on the transfer, shared, “For some time it was the dream of my late wife and myself that the Walter Scott Prize should take root in the great writer’s own home and creation at Abbotsford. … I am utterly delighted that this is being realised.”
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Giles Ingram, Chief Executive of The Abbotsford Trust, also commented on the Prize’s new phase: “Walter Scott, founding father of the historical novel, understood that our present is shaped by the tales we tell of our past. … Which is why we are delighted to be welcoming the Walter Scott Prize home to Abbotsford.”
The shortlist will be announced in May, with the winner to be revealed during the Borders Book Festival in Melrose this June, continuing the tradition of celebrating historical fiction’s role in shaping our understanding of the past.
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