Inaugural Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

SEVEN NOVELS have been shortlisted for the inaugural Walter Scott Prize, worth £25,000, it was announced on March 31, 2010. Britain’s first literary prize for historical fiction was recently launched by Borders Book Festival director Alistair Moffat to honour the man who wrote the world’s first best-selling historical novel, Sir Walter Scott, and to bring the past alive through literary fiction. The prize will be presented as Abbotsford, Scott’s former home.

1. Sacred Hearts (Virago, 2009) / Sarah Dunant
2. The Quickening Maze (Jonathan Cape, 2009) / Adam Foulds
3. Lustrum (Hutchinson, 2009) / Robert Harris
4. Wolf Hall (Fourth Estate, 2009) / Hilary Mantel
5. The Glass Room (Little, Brown, 2009) / Simon Mawer
6. Stone’s Fall (Jonathan Cape, 2009) / Iain Pears
7. Hodd (Jonathan Cape, 2009) / Adam Thorpe