Following last month’s announcement of the 2018 longlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, the shortlist has been revealed today. As you probably know by now, I am currently working my way through all of the shortlisted titles for this prize since it began in 2010 (you can see my progress here). There are six books on this year’s list and here they are:

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

Sugar Money by Jane Harris

Grace by Paul Lynch

The Wardrobe Mistress by Patrick McGrath

Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik

The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers

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I am currently halfway through Sugar Money, but haven’t read any of the other five books yet. If you’ve read them, please let me know what you thought. I’ll be reading them all eventually anyway, but which would you recommend I read first?

The winner will be announced in June.

Today the Walter Scott Prize Academy has announced its annual list of twenty recommended historical fiction novels published in the UK, Ireland and Commonwealth in 2017. This is in addition to the prize longlist of thirteen books which was released a few weeks ago.

I don’t have any plans to try to read all of these books, but I thought I would list them here because this is such an intriguing selection of titles:

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The Death of the Fronsac by Neal Ascherson (Apollo, UK)

Mrs Osmond by John Banville (Viking, UK)

Softness of the Lime by Maxine Case (Umuzi, South Africa)

He by John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton, UK)

Larchfield by Polly Clark (Riverrun, UK)

Goblin by Ever Dundas (Saraband, UK)

The Water Beetles by Michael Kaan (Goose Lane Editions, Canada)

The Iron Age by Arja Kajermo (Tramp Press, Ireland)

My Beautiful Imperial by Rhiannon Lewis (Victorina Press, UK)

Soot by Andrew Martin (Corsair, UK)

Story Land by Catherine McKinnon (4th Estate, Australia)

Amah and the Silk-Winged Pigeons by Jocelyn Nullity (Inanna Publications, Canada)

See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt (Tinder Press, Australia)

A Boy in Winter by Rachel Seiffert (Virago, UK)

Speakeasy by Alisa Smith (Douglas & McIntyre, Canada)

A Reckoning by Linda Spalding (McClelland & Stewart, Canada)

The Secret Books by Marcel Theroux (Faber & Faber, UK)

The Esquimaux by Tom Tivnan (Silvertail Books, UK)

City of Crows by Chris Womersley (Picador, Australia)

The Photographer by Mieke Ziervoge (Salt, UK)

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I do try to keep up to date with newly published historical fiction, but apart from Soot (which I have read and enjoyed), the only others on this list that I know anything about are Larchfield, Mrs Osmond and See What I Have Done. I haven’t even heard of most of the others!

What do you think? Have you read any of these books? Are there any that you think I need to read as soon as possible?

I’ve mentioned before that I am attempting to read all of the books shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction since the prize began in 2010. I am always looking for quality historical fiction and I have found the books nominated for this particular prize to be of a consistently high standard. You can see the progress I’ve made with this here – and I know there are other bloggers working on similar projects too, which is great to see.

The longlist for this year’s prize has just been announced and includes lots of intriguing titles. I’m not planning on trying to read the entire longlist – I’m waiting until the shortlist is announced – but I’m sure I will still be dipping into this list from time to time.

Here are the thirteen books on the 2018 longlist. I’ve only read two so far!

The Clocks in This House All Tell Different Times by Xan Brooks
Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
The Last Man In Europe by Dennis Glover
Sugar Money by Jane Harris
Prussian Blue by Philip Kerr
The Draughtsman by Robert Lautner
Grace by Paul Lynch
The Wardrobe Mistress by Patrick McGrath
Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik
The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers
The Horseman by Tim Pears
The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley

Of the two books I’ve already read, I enjoyed Birdcage Walk and I think its inclusion on the longlist is a nice tribute to Helen Dunmore, who died last year. I had a few problems with The Bedlam Stacks but I’m not surprised to see it listed here as I know most people who have read it loved it much more than I did.

Apart from Sugar Money, which is on my TBR and just waiting for the right time to be read, none of the others were books that I was planning to read – and there are a few that I haven’t even heard of! I obviously have some investigating to do.

Have you read any of the books on this year’s longlist? Which ones do you think will be on the shortlist in April?

Following last month’s revelation of the 2017 longlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, the shortlist has been announced today. As you probably know by now, I am currently working my way through all of the shortlisted titles for this prize since it began in 2010 (you can see my progress here). There are seven books on this year’s list and for once I’m off to a good start as I’ve already read three of them!

Here are the seven:

A Country Road, A Tree by Jo Baker

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson

The Good People by Hannah Kent

Golden Hill by Francis Spufford

Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift

The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain

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Of the three books that I’ve read, I loved Golden Hill and The Good People, and although I wasn’t a fan of Days Without End, Sebastian Barry’s writing is beautiful and I would say it has a good chance of winning. Of the four that I haven’t read, I already have a copy of The Gustav Sonata which I’m hoping to read soon, but I don’t know anything about the others. Have you read any of them? What do you think of this year’s shortlist?

The winner will be announced in June!