Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction · 2025 · Winner
The Land in Winter
Andrew MillerFor its luminous, precise account of a Royalist soldier's winter of uncertainty during the English Civil War.
Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
2025 Winner
2025 Shortlist & Longlist
Shortlist
Complete History
2020s
2010s
- 2019The Long Take — Robin Robertson
- 2018The Gallows Pole — Ben Myers
- 2017Days Without End — Sebastian Barry
- 2016Tightrope — Simon Mawer
- 2015The Ten Thousand Things — John Spurling
- 2014An Officer and a Spy — Robert Harris
- 2012On Canaan's Side — Sebastian Barry
- 2011The Long Song — Andrea Levy
- 2010Wolf Hall — Hilary Mantel
About the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction is one of the world's most prestigious awards for historical fiction, founded in 2010 in honour of Sir Walter Scott, the father of the historical novel, and administered by the Abbotsford Trust, which manages Scott's historic home in the Scottish Borders. At £25,000, it is one of the largest literary prizes in the United Kingdom. The prize is awarded annually for the best historical fiction published in English in the preceding year, with the winner announced at the Baillie Gifford Borders Book Festival held at Melrose. Eligible works must be set substantially in the historical past — defined loosely as prior to living memory — and must demonstrate both literary merit and authentic engagement with their historical setting. The prize has championed an extraordinarily diverse range of historical periods and settings, from the Yorkshire coiners of the eighteenth century (The Gallows Pole) to Cromwellian-era England (Wolf Hall) and wartime Northern Ireland (These Days). Past winners include Hilary Mantel for Wolf Hall (2010) and The Mirror & the Light (2021), Sebastian Barry for The Long Song (on behalf of Andrea Levy, 2011), Days Without End (2017), and On Canaan's Side (2012), Robin Robertson for The Long Take (2019), and Lucy Caldwell for These Days (2023). The prize accepts submissions from writers of any nationality published in English.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Founded in 2010, the Walter Scott Prize is a UK literary award of £25,000 for the best work of historical fiction published in English in the preceding year. It is named for Sir Walter Scott and administered by the Abbotsford Trust.
- The prize broadly defines historical fiction as novels set substantially prior to living memory, encompassing any period from antiquity to the mid-twentieth century. The judges look for works with strong historical authenticity and literary merit.
- Authors of any nationality writing in English may enter, provided the book is published in the UK, Ireland, or the United States.
- The winner receives £25,000, making it one of the largest literary prizes in the United Kingdom.
- The winner is announced at the Baillie Gifford Borders Book Festival, held each June at Melrose in the Scottish Borders.
- Twice — for Wolf Hall in 2010 (the inaugural prize) and for The Mirror & the Light in 2021.
- Yes. The prize publishes a longlist followed by a shortlist before announcing the winner. The longlist typically includes 10–15 titles and the shortlist around 5–7.