THE winner of the hugely prestigious 2023 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction will be chosen from a shortlist of seven books in less than one week’s time.

First awarded in 2010 to Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, and sponsored by the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction honours the inventor of the historical fiction genre and Buccleuch kinsman, Sir Walter Scott.

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The prize judging panel comprises Katie Grant (Chair), Elizabeth Buccleuch, James Holloway, Elizabeth Laird, James Naughtie, Kirsty Wark and, for 2023, award-winning documentary maker, journalist and writer Saira Shah.

The winner receives £25,000, and each shortlisted author receives £1,500, making the Walter Scott Prize amongst the richest fiction prizes in the UK.

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Its previous winners are Hilary Mantel and Sebastian Barry (both twice winners), Andrea Levy, Tan Twan Eng, Robert Harris, John Spurling, Simon Mawer, Benjamin Myers, Robin Robertson, Christine Dwyer Hickey and James Robertson.

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The shortlist is: These Days - Lucy Caldwell (Faber), The Geometer Lobachevsky - Adrian Duncan (Tuskar Rock Press) Act of Oblivion - Robert Harris (Hutchinson Heinemann), The Chosen - Elizabeth Lowry (Riverrun), The Sun Walks Down - Fiona McFarlane (Allen & Unwin Australia), Ancestry - Simon Mawer (Little, Brown) and I Am Not Your Eve - Devika Ponnambalam (Bluemoose).  

The winner will be announced at a special event at the Borders Book Festival on Thursday June 15 2023, which also honours the winners of the prize’s counterpart for young writers, the Young Walter Scott Prize.