Walter Scott Prize Colloquium declared ‘great success’

3rd August, 2023

The inaugural Walter Scott Prize Colloquium, held at Bowhill House on 16th June and hosted by the Duke of Buccleuch, was branded a great success by all who participated, with comments from writers and participants including ‘one of the most memorable events I’ve done in recent years’, ‘deeply thought-provoking’,  and ‘in a league of its own’.

2023 shortlisted authors Devika Ponnambalam, Adrian Duncan, Fiona McFarlane, Elizabeth Lowry, Lucy Caldwell and Simon Mawer took part in an initial panel session deftly presided over by chair of WSP judges, Katie Grant, in which they discussed research and wordcraft, what their subjects would have made of their books, and, to varying degrees, how important to them was the reader.  The second session, conducted under Chatham House Rules and chaired by Sally Magnusson, dove deeper into the practice of historical novelists, kicked off by a question from 2018 winner Benjamin Myers, author of The Gallows Pole: ‘what can we do to protect the concept of truth’?  The Colloquium concluded with a viewing of extraordinary Walter Scott manuscripts and artefacts, including the first canto of The Lay of the Last Minstrel, with Professor Ali Lumsden providing a fascinating glimpse into the mind and working practices of the great writer.

The Walter Scott Colloquium was part of the Borders Book Festival programme and included an audience and guests from the worlds of books, history and politics.

You can follow the live tweets from the Colloquium on this twitter thread, and look at photographs from the Colloquium and other events in our special Gallery.