Historical fiction prize announces first all-British shortlist

A prestigious historical fiction prize has revealed its first all-British shortlist, with the judges saying “above all, our five authors are storytellers”.

The five-book shortlist for the 2026 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction has been announced, with the winner set to receive £25,000 and each shortlisted author £1,500 – making it one of the most lucrative fiction prizes in the UK.

Spanning the centuries from the 1480s to the 1950s, the novels cover events and locations from the English Wars of the Roses to Austria and Germany during the Second World War.

They also include a shocking true crime committed on a Hebridean island and an imagined encounter in a small coastal community in north-west England.

The novels on this year’s shortlist are: The Pretender by Jo Harkin (Bloomsbury), The Matchbox Girl by Alice Jolly (Bloomsbury), Benbecula by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Polygon), Once The Deed Is Done by Rachel Seiffert (Virago); and Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (Viking).

The shortlist announcement was accompanied by a video shot at Abbotsford and narrated by broadcaster James Naughtie, with the five books being revealed in various locations throughout the gardens, library, drawing room and Scott’s study.

This year’s judging panel comprised writer Katie Grant (chairwoman), previous Young Walter Scott Prize winner Rosi Byard-Jones, bookshop owner Rosamund de la Hey, art historian James Holloway, children’s author Elizabeth Laird and Naughtie.

The judges said: “The five shortlisted novels for the 2026 Walter Scott Prize probe intimate lives lived in both small and big settings.

“Readers will hear voices usually unheard but which, once heard, won’t be forgotten.

“The shortlist choice is always difficult but our authors each reveal the hidden, and in doing so offer new insights into our own times as well as the times in which their novels are set.

“Above all, our five authors are storytellers, so if you like a good story, the 2026 Walter Scott Prize shortlist is one you won’t want to miss.”

This year’s winner will be revealed on June 12, following a live event at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose presented by Sir Walter Scott’s great-great-great-great grandson, Matthew Maxwell Scott, alongside prize founder and patron the Duke of Buccleuch.

They will join a list of previous winners that includes Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (2010), An Officer And A Spy by Robert Harris (2014), The Narrow Land by Christine Dwyer Hickey (2020) and The Land In Winter by Andrew Miller (2025).

Tickets for the event go on sale on April 22 at the Borders Book Festival box office.

To qualify for the prize, books must have been written in English and must have been published during 2025 in the UK, Ireland or the Commonwealth.

The majority (more than 50%) of the book must also be set at least 60 years ago, echoing the subtitle of Walter Scott’s celebrated novel Waverley – “tis sixty years since”.

Now in its 17th year, the prize is managed by The Abbotsford Trust, the charity that also looks after the home of Sir Walter Scott in the Scottish Borders.