The 2024 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction Longlist has been announced, including Cuddy by Benjamin Myers.
The twelve novels in contention for the £25,000 prize are:
THE NEW LIFE Tom Crewe (Chatto & Windus)
A BETTER PLACE Stephen Daisley (Text Publishing)
HUNGRY GHOSTS Kevin Jared Hosein (Bloomsbury)
FOR THY GREAT PAIN, HAVE MERCY ON MY LITTLE PAIN Victoria MacKenzie (Bloomsbury)
MUSIC IN THE DARK Sally Magnusson (John Murray)
CUDDY Benjamin Myers (Bloomsbury)
MY FATHER’S HOUSE Joseph O’Connor (Harvill Secker)
THE FRAUD Zadie Smith (Hamish Hamilton)
MISTER TIMELESS BLYTH Alan Spence (Tuttle)
THE HOUSE OF DOORS Tan Twan Eng (Canongate)
IN THE UPPER COUNTRY Kai Thomas (Penguin Canada)
ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER Rose Tremain (Chatto & Windus)
The 2024 judging panel comprised Katie Grant (chair), James Holloway, Elizabeth Laird, James Naughtie, Kirsty Wark and Saira Shah. Longlisted authors this year encompass a range of nationalities including Australian, British, Canadian, Irish, Malaysian and Trinidadian.
This year also sees the Prize moving to what might be considered its natural spiritual home, Abbotsford. From February 2024 the Prize will be managed by The Abbotsford Trust, the independent charity responsible for Sir Walter Scott’s extraordinary Borders home. Thanks to the generous support of Hawthornden Foundation, and the ongoing patronage of Prize founder and Abbotsford Patron the Duke of Buccleuch, the existing Walter Scott Prize team and judges will continue their work bringing new historical fiction to greater acclaim and honouring the inventor of the genre.
A shortlist will be announced in May, and the winner announcement and prizegiving event will take place as before at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose, in June.