Benjamin Myers and Joanna Quinn shortlisted for £3k Winston Graham Historical Prize

The shortlist for this year’s prize, which was relaunched by the Royal Cornwall Museum, features six "immersive" titles, including Myers’ Cuddy (Bloomsbury) and Quinn’s The Whalebone Theatre (Penguin). Jo Baker’s The Midnight News (Phoenix) is also featured on this year’s list, alongside Sally Magnusson’s Music in the Dark (John Murray), Kim Sherwood’s A Wild and True Relation (Virago) and Alan Warner’s Nothing Left to Fear From Hell (Birlinn). 

The Winston Graham Historical Prize was originally awarded for a historical fiction set in Cornwall or the South West. This year it has been opened up to any submissions set in the UK or Ireland, receiving more than 70 submissions within a few weeks.

Charlotte Hobson, author and chair of the judges, said: "This is the first year we’ve run the Winston Graham Prize as a nationwide prize with the emphasis on a sense of place. The hope was that by throwing the net wide, we’d come up with a shortlist to demonstrate the best of historical fiction being published in the UK and Ireland today. Well, that hope has been more than fulfilled."

Hobson added: "The sheer variety and boldness of style are thrilling. Gone are the days when the historical novel was considered a poor cousin to the contemporary novel. Here are six of the most original and extraordinary storytellers writing today, and they’ve chosen the historical novel as their form."

The panel of judges includes Louis de Bernières and novelist and poet A K Blakemore. The winner will be announced during a ceremony at the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro, Cornwall, on 22nd March.