Just announced, the longlist for this year's Walter Scott Prize, celebrating historical fiction published principally in the UK, Eire, and the Commonwealth in 2018:
Little by Edward Carey
A Long Way From Home by Peter Carey
After The Party by Cressida Connolly
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey
Dark Water by Elizabeth Lowry
Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
The Wanderers by Tim Pears
The Long Take by Robin Robertson
All The Lives We Never Lived by Anuradha Roy
Tombland by C J Sansom
The shortlist will be released in April, and the prize will be awarded at the Borders Book Festival in June.
I'm very pleased to see Tim Pears's The Wanderers there, the second part of his superb West Country Trilogy; if you're not already familiar with it, there are posts on the other two parts here and here.
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Related to the above is a further set of books to recommend, and in this I've had a hand. A few months ago I was invited to be a member of the Prize Academy, and I was delighted to accept and in that capacity to put forward a list of titles meeting the prize criteria which I felt were worthy of association with it. From the Academy's submissions the following list has been compiled:
Love Is Blind by William Boyd
The Prince Of Mirrors by Alan Robert Clark
The Making Of Martin Sparrow by Peter Cochrane
So Much Life Left Over by Louis de Bernieres
All Among The Barley by Melissa Harrison
The Hundred Wells Of Salaga by Ayesha Harruna Attah
Only Killers And Thieves by Paul Howarth
Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile by Alice Jolly
The Black Earth by Philip Kazan
The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson
Mad Blood Stirring by Simon Mayo
As The Women Lay Dreaming by Donald S Murray
Kintu by Jennifer Nansubaga Makumbi
The Angel’s Mark by S J Perry
A View Of The Empire At Sunset by Caryl Phillips
Painter To The King by Amy Sackville
A Treachery Of Spies by Manda Scott
The Tristan Chord by Glenn Skwerer
Never Anyone But You by Rupert Thomson
The Madonna Of The Mountains by Elise Valmorbida
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By way of a small personal footnote, I've always known that my grandfather was a keen reader of and about Sir Walter Scott, and I have his very handsome copy of Lockhart's life of the author on my biography shelves. I learned recently, though, that Grandpa's enthusiasm extended to his reading the novels during the sermon at Brechin Cathedral where he was an elder and no doubt should have been engaging with the minister's words rather than Scott's, but such is the power of literature!
A very interesting long list and I was pleased to see a couple of books I've enjoyed (The Black Earth and The Angel's Mark) on the Academy Recommends list so thanks if you had anything to do with those being included. What a great thing to be involved in. I was so pleased to see some book bloggers being included.
Posted by: Cathy Johnson | 06 March 2019 at 12:18 PM
It is very nice to see the book blogging community recognised in that way.
Posted by: Cornflower | 06 March 2019 at 02:24 PM
Sir Walter Scott was one of my dad's favourites and I have his books but I still haven't got around to reading them myself. The Academy list in his name is interesting - I loved The Sealwoman's Gift, The Angel's Mark, All Among the Barley, A Treachery of Spies and The Madonna of Valmorbida - five very different books but all equally enjoyable.
I will have to investigate the other books on both lists now as I'm sure that there are some gems on it.
Posted by: LizF | 10 March 2019 at 08:44 PM