The winner of the 2016 Walter Scott Prize is announced!
18th June, 2016
Simon Mawer has won the 2016 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for his novel Tightrope. The author received his award from the Duke of Buccleuch, at the Brewin Dolphin Borders Book Festival on Saturday 18th June. You can watch the Prize Ceremony here.
Tightrope follows Marian Sutro, who has survived Ravensbruck and is back in dreary London trying to pick up the pieces of her post-War life. It is Simon Mawer’s tenth novel; his seventh, The Glass Room, was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize in 2010.
The Judges said:
‘Tightrope is a spy story in the grand tradition, sweeping the reader irresistibly into the harrowing life of a secret agent in World War Two. Impeccably researched, it perfectly inhabits its time and place. It is a worthy winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.’
Simon Mawer said on receiving the award:
‘I would like to thank Marian Sutro, who is very close to my heart, and probably of all my characters, in all my fiction, is the one most alive to me, and I owe her a great deal. ‘
Tightrope was chosen from a shortlist of six novels, with settings ranging from Canada, Australia, and 20th century Europe. The other authors on the 2016 shortlist were William Boyd, Patrick Gale, Gavin McCrea, Allan Massie, and Lucy Treloar.
You can read the full press release by clicking here: