Spotlight on: new judge Katharine Grant

2nd March, 2017

Our third new WSP judge for 2017 is writer Katharine Grant.  We asked her how she would approach the judging, and she gave us some rather lovely answers.

“History isn’t his-story: it’s our story, and our story is the heart of historical novels. Walter Scott understood this, and the prize so generously founded in his name celebrates this understanding.  It’s one thing to understand, though, and another to write historical novels that engage, delight, subvert, confirm, alarm, intrigue, amuse, surprise and generally sweep the reader into L. P. Hartley’s ‘foreign country’, where not only to they do things differently, they believe differently, assume differently, judge differently.  

It’s not easy to get it right, which is why being part of the judging panel of the Walter Scott Prize is a responsibility as well a privilege. But as I sit with books piled, notebook and pen to hand, brain fully engaged, along with the responsibility and the privilege I feel the thrill of immersion in other times, where although the history may be familiar, the story is not. And that’s the key. Research is easy: it’s breathing life into research that’s hard. How marvellous to have a prize that recognises the very particular travails of the historical novelist, and what an honour to be part of it. Serious reading, lively discussion. I’m looking forward to it. “