Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

 in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, United Kingdom, the prizes were founded by Mrs Janet Coutts Black in memory of her late husband, James Tait Black, a partner in the publishing house of A & C Black

A & C Black

A & C Black is a British book publishing company.The firm was founded in 1807 by Adam and Charles Black in Edinburgh, and moved to the Soho district of London in 1889. In 1851, the firm bought the copyright of Walter Scott's Waverley Novels for £27,000. In 1902 it published P. G...

 Ltd.

Notable and recent winners

Four winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature

Nobel Prize in Literature

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...

 received the James Tait Black earlier in their careers; Sir William Golding

William Golding

Sir William Gerald Golding was a British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, best known for his novel Lord of the Flies...

, Nadine Gordimer

Nadine Gordimer

Nadine Gordimer is a South African writer and political activist. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature when she was recognised as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity".Her writing has long dealt...

 and J. M. Coetzee each collected the James Tait Black for fiction, whilst Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing

Doris May Lessing CH is a British writer. Her novels include The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook, and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos....

 took the prize for biography. In addition to these literary Nobels, Sir Ronald Ross, whose 1923 autobiography Memoirs, Etc. received the biography prize, was already a Nobel Laureate, having been awarded the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...

 for his work on malaria. Other major literary figures to receive the award include D. H. Lawrence

D. H. Lawrence

David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...

, Arnold Bennett

Arnold Bennett

- Early life :Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the...

, Bruce Chatwin

Bruce Chatwin

Charles Bruce Chatwin was an English novelist and travel writer. He won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel On the Black Hill...

, John Buchan, Robert Graves

Robert Graves

Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...

, Arthur Waley

Arthur Waley

Arthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss...

, Graham Greene

Graham Greene

Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...

, Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh

Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...

, Anthony Powell

Anthony Powell

Anthony Dymoke Powell CH, CBE was an English novelist best known for his twelve-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published between 1951 and 1975....

, Muriel Spark

Muriel Spark

Dame Muriel Spark, DBE was an award-winning Scottish novelist. In 2008 The Times newspaper named Spark in its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945".-Early life:...

, J. G. Ballard

J. G. Ballard

James Graham Ballard was an English novelist, short story writer, and prominent member of the New Wave movement in science fiction...

, Angela Carter

Angela Carter

Angela Carter was an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works...

, Margaret Drabble and Salman Rushdie.

More recent winners of note include Graham Swift

Graham Swift

Graham Colin Swift FRSL is a British author. He was born in London, England and educated at Dulwich College, London, Queens' College, Cambridge, and later the University of York. He was a friend of Ted Hughes...

, Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith is a British novelist. To date she has written three novels. In 2003, she was included on Granta's list of 20 best young authors...

, Martin Amis

Martin Amis

Martin Louis Amis is a British novelist, the author of many novels including Money and London Fields . He is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, but will step down at the end of the 2010/11 academic year...

, Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan

Ian Russell McEwan CBE, FRSA, FRSL is a British novelist and screenwriter, and one of Britain's most highly regarded writers. In 2008, The Times named him among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945"....

 and AS Byatt, each of whom have received either the fiction or biography prize in the course of the last decade.

Selection process and prize administration

The winners are chosen by the Professor of English Literature at the University, who is assisted by PhD students in the shortlisting phase, a structure which is seen to lend the prizes a considerable gravitas. At the award of the 2006 prizes, Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy is an American novelist and playwright. He has written ten novels, spanning the Southern Gothic, Western, and modernist genres. He received the Pulitzer Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction for The Road...

's publisher commented positively on the selection process noting that, in the absence of a sponsor and literary or media figures amongst the judging panel, the decision is made by "...students and professors, whose only real agenda can be great books and great writing". The original endowment is now supplemented by the University and, as a consequence, the total prize fund rose from £6,000 to £20,000 for the 2005 awards. This increase made the two annual prizes, one for fiction

Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

 and the other for biography

Biography

A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...

, the largest literary prizes on offer in Scotland. The University is advised in relation to the development and administration of the Prize by a small committee which includes Ian Rankin

Ian Rankin

Ian Rankin, OBE, DL , is a Scottish crime writer. His best known books are the Inspector Rebus novels. He has also written several pieces of literary criticism.-Background:He attended Beath High School, Cowdenbeath...

, Alexander McCall Smith

Alexander McCall Smith

Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE, is a Rhodesian-born Scottish writer and Emeritus Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. In the late 20th century, McCall Smith became a respected expert on medical law and bioethics and served on British and international committees...

 and James Naughtie

James Naughtie

James Naughtie is a British radio presenter and radio news presenter for the BBC. Since 1994 he has been one of the main presenters of Radio 4's Today programme.- Biography :...

 amongst its members. In August 2007 the prize ceremony was held at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

Edinburgh International Book Festival

The Edinburgh International Book Festival, is a book festival that takes place in the last three weeks of August every year in Charlotte Square, in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital...

 for the first time.

Eligibility

Only those works of fiction and biographies written in English and first published in Britain in the 12 month period prior to the submission date are eligible for the award. Both prizes may go to the same author, but neither prize can be awarded to the same author on more than one occasion.

Complete list of Winners

Year	Fiction Award	Year	Biography Award
1919	Hugh Walpole Hugh Walpole Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, CBE was an English novelist. A prolific writer, he published thirty-six novels, five volumes of short stories, two plays and three volumes of memoirs. His skill at scene-setting, his vivid plots, his high profile as a lecturer and his driving ambition brought him a large... , The Secret City	1919	Henry Festing Jones Henry Festing Jones Henry Festing Jones was the friend and posthumous biographer of Samuel Butler. His biography of Butler, entitled Samuel Butler, Author of Erewhon — A Memoir, won the inaugural James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography in 1919.... , Samuel Butler, Author of Erewhon (1835-1902) - A Memoir
1920	D. H. Lawrence D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation... , The Lost Girl The Lost Girl The Lost Girl is a novel by D. H. Lawrence, first published in 1920. It was awarded the 1920 James Tait Black Memorial Prize in the fiction category.Lawrence started to write 200 pages of it in 1913 and abandoned it before he finished it in 1920....	1920	G. M. Trevelyan G. M. Trevelyan George Macaulay Trevelyan, OM, CBE, FRS, FBA , was a British historian. Trevelyan was the third son of Sir George Otto Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet, and great-nephew of Thomas Babington Macaulay, whose staunch liberal Whig principles he espoused in accessible works of literate narrative avoiding a... , Lord Grey Earl Grey Earl Grey is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1806 for General Charles Grey, 1st Baron Grey. He had already been created Baron Grey, of Howick in the County of Northumberland, in 1801, and was made Viscount Howick, in the County of Northumberland, at the same time as...  of the Reform Bill
1921	Walter de la Mare Walter de la Mare Walter John de la Mare , OM CH was an English poet, short story writer and novelist, probably best remembered for his works for children and the poem "The Listeners".... , Memoirs of a Midget	1921	Lytton Strachey Lytton Strachey Giles Lytton Strachey was a British writer and critic. He is best known for establishing a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit... , Queen Victoria Victoria of the United Kingdom Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
1922	David Garnett David Garnett David Garnett was a British writer and publisher. As a child, he had a cloak made of rabbit skin and thus received the nickname "Bunny", by which he was known to friends and intimates all his life.-Early life:... , Lady into Fox Lady into Fox Lady into Fox was David Garnett's first novel under his own name, published in 1922. This short and enigmatic work won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and the Hawthornden Prize a year later.-Plot summary:...	1922	Percy Lubbock Percy Lubbock Percy Lubbock, CBE was an English man of letters, known as an essayist, critic and biographer.-Life:Percy Lubbock was the son of the merchant banker Frederic Lubbock and his wife Catherine, daughter of John Gurney of Earlham Hall, Norfolk... , Earlham
1923	Arnold Bennett Arnold Bennett - Early life :Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the... , Riceyman Steps Riceyman Steps Riceyman Steps is the title of a novel by British novelist Arnold Bennett, first published in 1923 and winner of that year's James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.-Background:...	1923	Sir Ronald Ross, Memoirs, Etc.
1924	E. M. Forster E. M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster OM, CH was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society... , A Passage to India A Passage to India A Passage to India is a novel by E. M. Forster set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s. It was selected as one of the 100 great works of English literature by the Modern Library and won the 1924 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. Time...	1924	Rev. William Wilson, The House of Airlie
1925	Liam O'Flaherty Liam O'Flaherty Liam O'Flaherty was a significant Irish novelist and short story writer and a major figure in the Irish literary renaissance, born August 28, 1896, died September 7, 1984.-Biography:... , The Informer The Informer (novel) The Informer is a novel by Irish writer Liam O'Flaherty published in 1925. It received the 1925 James Tait Black Memorial Prize.-Plot summary:Set in 1920's Dublin in the aftermath of the Irish Civil War, the novel centers on Gypo Nolan...	1925	Geoffrey Scott, The Portrait of Zelide
1926	Radclyffe Hall Radclyffe Hall Radclyffe Hall was an English poet and author, best known for the lesbian classic The Well of Loneliness.- Life :... , Adam's Breed	1926	Reverend Dr H. B. Workman Herbert Brook Workman Herbert Brook Workman was a leading Methodist and secretary of the Wesleyan Methodist Secondary Schools Trust when they took over Elmfield College in 1928.Workman was born in London and educated at Kingswood School and Owens College, Manchester... , John Wyclif: A Study of the English Medieval Church
1927	Francis Brett Young Francis Brett Young Francis Brett Young was an English novelist, poet, playwright, and composer.-Life:Brett Young was born in Halesowen, Worcestershire. He schooled first at a private school in Sutton Coldfield... , Portrait of Clare	1927	H. A. L. Fisher, James Bryce James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce OM, GCVO, PC, FRS, FBA was a British academic, jurist, historian and Liberal politician.-Background and education:... , Viscount Bryce of Dechmont, O.M.
1928	Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC was an English poet, author and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's... , Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man is a novel by Siegfried Sassoon, first published in 1928 by Faber and Faber. It won both the Hawthornden Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, being immediately recognised as a classic of English literature...	1928	John Buchan, Montrose
1929	J. B. Priestley J. B. Priestley John Boynton Priestley, OM , known as J. B. Priestley, was an English novelist, playwright and broadcaster. He published 26 novels, notably The Good Companions , as well as numerous dramas such as An Inspector Calls... , The Good Companions The Good Companions The Good Companions is a novel by the English author J. B. Priestley.Written in 1929 , it focuses on the trials and tribulations of a concert party in England between World War I and World War II. It is arguably Priestley's most famous novel, and the work which established him as a national figure...	1929	Lord David Cecil Lord David Cecil Edward Christian David Gascoyne-Cecil, CH , was a British biographer, historian and academic. He held the style of 'Lord' by courtesy, as a younger son of a marquess.-Early life and studies:... , The Stricken Deer: or The Life of Cowper
1930	E. H. Young E. H. Young -Life:Although almost completely forgotten by recent generations, E. H. Young was a best-selling novelist of her time. She was born in Whitley, Northumberland, , the daughter of a shipbroker. She attended Gateshead Secondary School and Penrhos College, Colwyn Bay, Wales... , Miss Mole	1930	Francis Yeats-Brown Francis Yeats-Brown Major Francis Charles Claypon Yeats-Brown, DFC was an officer in the British Indian army and the author of the celebrated memoir The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, for which he was awarded the 1930 James Tait Black Memorial Prize.-Life and career:Yeats-Brown was born in Genoa, the son of a British... , Lives of a Bengal Lancer
1931	Kate O'Brien Kate O'Brien Kate O'Brien , was an Irish novelist and playwright.-Biography:Kathleen "Kate" Mary Louie O'Brien was born in Limerick City at the end of the 19th century. Following the death of her mother when she was five, she became a boarder at Laurel Hill convent... , Without My Cloak	1931	J. Y. T. Greig J. Y. T. Greig John Young Thomson Greig as a British literary scholar and award-winning biographer. He was born in Manchuria where his father was a Presbyterian missionary. He served in the First World War as an officer in the Northumberland Fusiliers. After the war, he studied at the University of Glasgow,... , David Hume David Hume David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...
1932	Helen de Guerry Simpson Helen de Guerry Simpson Helen de Guerry Simpson was an Australian novelist.-Life and career:Simpson was born in Sydney into a family that had been settled in New South Wales for over 100 years... , Boomerang	1932	Stephen Gwynn, The Life of Mary Kingsley Mary Kingsley Mary Henrietta Kingsley was an English writer and explorer who greatly influenced European ideas about Africa and African people.-Early life:Kingsley was born in Islington, London on 13 October 1862...
1933	A. G. Macdonell A. G. Macdonell Archibald Gordon Macdonell was a Scottish writer, journalist and broadcaster, whose most famous work is the gently satirical novel England, Their England .-Life and work:... , England, Their England England, Their England England, Their England is an affectionately satirical comic novel of 1920s English urban and rural society by the Scottish writer A. G. Macdonell. It is particularly famed for its portrayal of village cricket.-Social satire:...	1933	Violet Clifton, The Book of Talbot
1934	Robert Graves Robert Graves Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works... , I, Claudius I, Claudius I, Claudius is a novel by English writer Robert Graves, written in the form of an autobiography of the Roman Emperor Claudius. As such, it includes history of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty and Roman Empire, from Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BC to Caligula's assassination in AD 41... and Claudius the God	1934	J. E. Neale J. E. Neale Sir John Ernest Neale, FBA was a British historian who specialised in Elizabethan and Parliamentary history.-Academic career:... , Queen Elizabeth Elizabeth I of England Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
1935	L. H. Myers, The Root and the Flower	1935	Raymond Wilson Chambers Raymond Wilson Chambers Raymond Wilson Chambers was a British literary scholar, author, and academic; throughout his career he was associated with University College London .-Life:... , Thomas More Thomas More Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...
1936	Winifred Holtby Winifred Holtby Winifred Holtby was an English novelist and journalist, best known for her novel South Riding.-Life and writings:... , South Riding South Riding (novel) South Riding is a novel by Winifred Holtby, published posthumously in 1936.The book is set in the fictional South Riding of Yorkshire: the inspiration being the East Riding rather than South Yorkshire...	1936	Edward Sackville West, A Flame in Sunlight: The Life and Work of Thomas de Quincey Thomas de Quincey Thomas Penson de Quincey was an English esssayist, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater .-Child and student:...
1937	Neil M. Gunn Neil M. Gunn Neil Miller Gunn was a prolific novelist, critic, and dramatist who emerged as one of the leading lights of the Scottish Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s... , Highland River	1937	Lord Eustace Percy, John Knox John Knox John Knox was a Scottish clergyman and a leader of the Protestant Reformation who brought reformation to the church in Scotland. He was educated at the University of St Andrews or possibly the University of Glasgow and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1536...
1938	C. S. Forester C. S. Forester Cecil Scott "C.S." Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith , an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of naval warfare. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series, depicting a Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic era, and The African Queen... , A Ship of the Line A Ship of the Line A Ship of the Line is an historical seafaring novel by C. S. Forester. It follows his fictional hero Horatio Hornblower during his tour as captain of a ship of the line. By internal chronology, A Ship of the Line, which follows The Happy Return, is the seventh book in the series... and Flying Colours	1938	Sir Edmund Chambers, Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
1939	Aldous Huxley Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel... , After Many a Summer Dies the Swan After Many a Summer After Many a Summer is a novel by Aldous Huxley that tells the story of a Hollywood millionaire who fears his impending death; it was published in the United States as After Many a Summer Dies the Swan...	1939	David C. Douglas David C. Douglas David Charles Douglas was a historian of the Norman period at the University of Cambridge and University of Oxford. He joined Oxford University in 1963 as Ford's Lecturer in English History, and was the 1939 winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.-Works:* William the Conqueror: The Norman... , English Scholars
1940	Charles Morgan Charles Langbridge Morgan Charles Langbridge Morgan , was an English-born playwright and novelist of English and Welsh parentage. The main themes of his work were, as he himself put it, "Art, Love, and Death", and the relation between them... , The Voyage	1940	Hilda F. M. Prescott, Spanish Tudor: Mary I of England Mary I of England Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...
1941	Joyce Cary Joyce Cary Joyce Cary was an Anglo-Irish novelist and artist.-Youth and education:... , A House of Children	1941	John Gore John Gore John Gore may refer to:*John Gore , American sailor who accompanied James Cook*John Gore, 1st Baron Annaly , Irish peer and MP for Jamestown and Longford County... , King George V George V of the United Kingdom George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
1942	Arthur Waley Arthur Waley Arthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss... , Translation of Monkey Monkey (book) Monkey: A Folk-Tale of China, usually known as simply Monkey, is an abridged translation of the sixteenth century Chinese classic novel Journey to the West by poet and novelist Wu Cheng'en, of the Ming dynasty... by Wu Cheng'en Wu Cheng'en Wu Cheng'en , courtesy name Ruzhong , pen name "Sheyang Hermit," was a Chinese novelist and poet of the Ming Dynasty, best known for being the attributed author of one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, Journey to the West.-Biography:Wu was born in Lianshui, in Jiangsu...	1942	Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, Henry Ponsonby Henry Ponsonby Sir Henry Frederick Ponsonby GCB was a British soldier and royal court official who served as Queen Victoria's Private Secretary.-Biography:He was the son of the British Army general, Sir Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby.... : Queen Victoria's Private Secretary
1943	Mary Lavin Mary Lavin Mary Josephine Lavin was a noted Irish short story writer and novelist. She is regarded as a pioneering female author in the traditionally male-dominated world of Irish letters. Her subject matter often dealt explicitly with feminist issues and concerns at a time when the primacy of the Roman... , Tales from Bective Bridge	1943	G. G. Coulton G. G. Coulton George Gordon Coulton FBA was a British historian, known for numerous works on medieval history. He was known also as a keen controversialist.... , Fourscore Years
1944	Forrest Reid Forrest Reid Forrest Reid was an Irish novelist, literary critic and translator. He was, along with Hugh Walpole and J.M. Barrie, a leading pre-war British novelist of boyhood... , Young Tom	1944	C. V. Wedgwood, William the Silent William the Silent William I, Prince of Orange , also widely known as William the Silent , or simply William of Orange , was the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish that set off the Eighty Years' War and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1648. He was born in the House of...
1945	L. A. G. Strong, Travellers	1945	D. S. MacColl, Philip Wilson Steer Philip Wilson Steer Philip Wilson Steer OM was a British painter of landscape and occasional portraits and figure studies. He was a leading figure in the Impressionist movement in Britain.-Life and work:...
1946	Oliver Onions Oliver Onions George Oliver Onions was a significant English novelist who published over forty novels and story collections. Originally trained as a commercial artist, he worked as a designer of posters and books, and as a magazine illustrator, before starting his career in writing... , Poor Man's Tapestry	1946	Richard Aldington Richard Aldington Richard Aldington , born Edward Godfree Aldington, was an English writer and poet.Aldington was best known for his World War I poetry, the 1929 novel, Death of a Hero, and the controversy arising from his 1955 Lawrence of Arabia: A Biographical Inquiry... , A Life of Wellington: The Duke
1947	L. P. Hartley L. P. Hartley Leslie Poles Hartley was a British writer, known for novels and short stories. His best-known work is The Go-Between , which was made into a 1970 film, directed by Joseph Losey with a star cast, in an adaptation by Harold Pinter... , Eustace and Hilda	1947	Rev. C. C. E. Raven, English Naturalists from Neckham to Ray
1948	Graham Greene Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world... , The Heart of the Matter The Heart of the Matter The Heart of the Matter , a novel by the English author Graham Greene, won the 1948 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. During World War II, Greene worked for the Secret Intelligence Service in Sierra Leone, the setting for his novel...	1948	Percy A. Scholes, The Great Dr Burney
1949	Emma Smith Emma Smith (author) -Early life and fame:Emma Smith was born as Elspeth Hallsmith in Cornwall in 1923. She was educated privately up to the age of 16, when she decided to take up a job at the War Office. During the Second World War, she volunteered to work on the canals as a boatwoman... , The Far Cry	1949	John Connell John Connell John Connell was a contemporary American artist. His works included sculpture, painting, drawing, and writing.... , W. E. Henley
1950	Robert Henriques Robert Henriques Robert David Quixano Henriques was a British writer, broadcaster and farmer. He gained modest renown for two award-winning novels and two biographies of Jewish business tycoons, published during the middle part of the 20th century.-Life and career:Robert Henriques was born in 1905 to one of the... , Through the Valley	1950	Cecil Woodham-Smith Cecil Woodham-Smith Cecil Blanche Woodham-Smith was a British historian and biographer. She wrote four popular history books, each dealing with a different aspect of the Victorian era.-Early life:... , Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night...
1951	Chapman Mortimer Chapman Mortimer Chapman Mortimer was the pen name of William Charles Chapman Mortimer , a Scottish novelist. He won the James Tait Black Award for fiction in 1951 for his novel Father Goose.-Publications:... , Father Goose Father Goose Father Goose may refer to:* Father Goose: His Book, by L. Frank Baum, or the character of that name in his other works* Father Goose, a book by Chapman Mortimer that won the 1951 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction...	1951	Noel Annan Noel Annan Noel Gilroy Annan, Baron Annan, OBE was a British military intelligence officer, author, and academic. During his military career, he rose to the rank of Colonel and was appointed OBE... , Leslie Stephen Leslie Stephen Sir Leslie Stephen, KCB was an English author, critic and mountaineer, and the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell.-Life:...
1952	Evelyn Waugh Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer... , Men at Arms Sword of Honour The Sword of Honour trilogy by Evelyn Waugh is his look at the Second World War. It consists of three novels, Men at Arms , Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender , which loosely parallel his wartime experiences...	1952	G. M. Young, Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC was a British Conservative politician, who dominated the government in his country between the two world wars...
1953	Margaret Kennedy Margaret Kennedy Margaret Kennedy was an English novelist and playwright.-Family and education:Margaret Kennedy was born in Hyde Park Gate, London, the eldest of the four children of Charles Moore Kennedy , a barrister, and his wife Ellinor Edith Marwood... , Troy Chimneys	1953	Carola Oman, Sir John Moore
1954	C. P. Snow C. P. Snow Charles Percy Snow, Baron Snow of the City of Leicester CBE was an English physicist and novelist who also served in several important positions with the UK government... , The New Men and The Masters	1954	Keith Feiling Keith Feiling Sir Keith Grahame Feiling was Chichele Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford, 1946–1950. He was noted for his conservative interpretation of the past, showing an empire-oriented ideology in defence of hierarchical authority, paternalism, deference, the monarchy, Church, family,... , Warren Hastings Warren Hastings Warren Hastings PC was the first Governor-General of India, from 1773 to 1785. He was famously accused of corruption in an impeachment in 1787, but was acquitted in 1795. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1814.-Early life:...
1955	Ivy Compton-Burnett Ivy Compton-Burnett Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett, DBE was an English novelist, published as I. Compton-Burnett. She was awarded the 1955 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for her novel Mother and Son.-Life:... , Mother and Son	1955	R. W. Ketton-Cremer, Thomas Gray Thomas Gray Thomas Gray was a poet, letter-writer, classical scholar and professor at Cambridge University.-Early life and education:...
1956	Rose Macaulay Rose Macaulay Dame Emilie Rose Macaulay, DBE was an English writer. She published thirty-five books, mostly novels but also biographies and travel writing.... , The Towers of Trebizond The Towers of Trebizond The Towers of Trebizond is a novel by Rose Macaulay . Published in 1956, it was the last of her novels, and the most successful. It was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction in the year of its publication.-Plot:...	1956	St John Greer Ervine, George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
1957	Anthony Powell Anthony Powell Anthony Dymoke Powell CH, CBE was an English novelist best known for his twelve-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published between 1951 and 1975.... , At Lady Molly's At Lady Molly's At Lady Molly's is the fourth volume in Anthony Powell's twelve novel sequence, A Dance to the Music of Time. A first person narrative, it is written in precise yet conversational prose...	1957	Maurice Cranston Maurice Cranston Maurice Cranston was a British philosopher, professor, and author. He served for many years as a Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics, and was also known for his popular publications... , Life of John Locke John Locke John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...
1958	Angus Wilson Angus Wilson Sir Angus Frank Johnstone Wilson, CBE was an English novelist and short story writer. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot and later received a knighthood for his services to literature.-Biography:Wilson was born in Bexhill, Sussex, England, to... , The Middle Age of Mrs. Eliot	1958	Joyce Hemlow Joyce Hemlow Joyce Hemlow M.A., Ph.D, FRSC was a Canadian professor and accomplished writer.She was born to William and Rosalinda Hemlow and was educated at Queen's University, received a B.A in 1941 and her MA in 1942, becoming a travelling fellow of the university until 1943, when she became a fellow of the... , The History of Fanny Burney Fanny Burney Frances Burney , also known as Fanny Burney and, after her marriage, as Madame d’Arblay, was an English novelist, diarist and playwright. She was born in Lynn Regis, now King’s Lynn, England, on 13 June 1752, to musical historian Dr Charles Burney and Mrs Esther Sleepe Burney...
1959	Morris West Morris West Morris Langlo West AO was an Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels The Devil's Advocate , The Shoes of the Fisherman , and The Clowns of God . His books were published in 27 languages and sold more than 60 million copies worldwide... , The Devil's Advocate The Devil's Advocate (novel) The Devil's Advocate is a 1959 novel by Australian author Morris West. It forms part of West's "Vatican" sequence of novels, along with The Shoes of the Fisherman , The Clowns of God , and Lazarus .-Notes:...	1959	Christopher Hassall Christopher Hassall Christopher Vernon Hassall was an English actor, dramatist, librettist, lyricist and poet, who found his greatest fame in a memorable musical partnership with the actor and composer Ivor Novello after working together in the same touring company... , Edward Marsh
1960	Rex Warner Rex Warner Rex Warner was an English classicist, writer and translator. He is now probably best remembered for The Aerodrome , an allegorical novel whose young hero is faced with the disintegration of his certainties about his loved ones and with a choice between the earthy, animalistic life of his home... , Imperial Caesar	1960	Canon Adam Fox Adam Fox Adam Fox , Canon, was the Dean of Divinity at Magdalen College, Oxford. He was one of the first members of the "Inklings", a literary group which also included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Between 1938 and 1942 he was Professor of Poetry. Later he became Canon of Westminster Abbey and he is... , The Life of Dean Inge
1961	Jennifer Dawson Jennifer Dawson Jennifer Dawson, was an English novelist. Her works explored the theme of mental illness and society's attitudes to those suffering from such conditions. Born in London, she attended school in Camberwell and went on to read Modern History at St Anne's College, Oxford... , The Ha-Ha	1961	M. K. Ashby M. K. Ashby Mabel Kathleen Ashby was an educationalist, writer and historian born in Tysoe, Warwickshire, England.-Early life:... , Joseph Ashby Joseph Ashby Joseph Ashby was an agricultural trade unionist born in Tysoe, Warwickshire, England. “His life was remarkable, encapsulating in many aspects the ideal of the self-improving working man, and embracing most of the institutions—the nonconformist chapel, trades unionism, and working-class...  of Tysoe
1962	Ronald Hardy Ronald Hardy Ronald Harold Hardy was an English novelist and screenwriter. His first novel The Place of Jackals was published in 1954 to general acclaim. Hardy drew on his experiences as a liaison officer in Indochina during World War II in the writing of this novel... , Act of Destruction	1962	Meriol Trevor Meriol Trevor Meriol Trevor was one of the most prolific Roman Catholic women writers of the twentieth century. She was educated at Perse Girls' School, Cambridge, and St Hugh's College, Oxford, taking her degree in 1942. During World War II she worked in a day nursery and later as the steerer of a cargo barge... , Newman: The Pillar and the Cloud and Newman: Light in Winter
1963	Gerda Charles Gerda Charles Gerda Charles was the pseudonym of Edna Lipson , an award-winning Anglo-Jewish novelist and author. She was born in Liverpool and spent her early years there. Her father died when Edna was a year old, throwing the family into poverty. At the age of 15, Edna moved to London with her mother... , A Slanting Light	1963	Georgina Battiscombe Georgina Battiscombe Georgina Battiscombe was a British biographer, specialising mainly in lives from the Victorian era.... , John Keble John Keble John Keble was an English churchman and poet, one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement, and gave his name to Keble College, Oxford.-Early life:... : A Study in Limitations
1964	Frank Tuohy Frank Tuohy John Francis Tuohy, was an English writer and academic. Born in London, he attended Stowe School and went on to read Moral Sciences and English at King's College, Cambridge. On completion of his studies, he worked in numerous academic posts under the auspices of the British Council. This included... , The Ice Saints	1964	Elizabeth Longford Elizabeth Longford Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford, CBE, better known as Elizabeth Longford was a British author.-Life:... , Victoria R.I.
1965	Muriel Spark Muriel Spark Dame Muriel Spark, DBE was an award-winning Scottish novelist. In 2008 The Times newspaper named Spark in its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945".-Early life:... , The Mandelbaum Gate The Mandelbaum Gate The Mandelbaum Gate is a novel written by Scottish author Muriel Spark published in 1965 and winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize that year. The title refers to the Mandelbaum Gate in Jerusalem around which the novel is set...	1965	Mary Moorman Mary Moorman Mary Ann Moorman was a witness to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. She is best known for her photograph capturing the presidential limousine a fraction of a second after the fatal shot.-Biography:... , William Wordsworth William Wordsworth William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads.... : The Later Years 1803-1850
1966	Christine Brooke-Rose Christine Brooke-Rose Christine Frances Evelyn Brooke-Rose is a British writer and literary critic, known principally for her later, experimental novels.-Biography:... , Such, and Aidan Higgins Aidan Higgins -Life:His upbringing in a landed Catholic family in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland, provided material for his first experimental novel, Langrishe, Go Down... , Langrishe, Go Down	1966	Geoffrey Keynes Geoffrey Keynes Sir Geoffrey Langdon Keynes was an English biographer, surgeon, physician, scholar and bibliophile... , The Life of William Harvey William Harvey William Harvey was an English physician who was the first person to describe completely and in detail the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped to the body by the heart...
1967	Margaret Drabble, Jerusalem The Golden	1967	Winifred Gérin Winifred Gérin Winifred Eveleen Gérin, OBE was an English biographer born in Hamburg. She is best known as a biographer of the Brontë sisters and their brother Branwell, whose lives she researched extensively... , Charlotte Brontë Charlotte Brontë Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards... : The Evolution of Genius
1968	Maggie Ross, The Gasteropod	1968	Gordon Haight, George Eliot George Eliot Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
1969	Elizabeth Bowen Elizabeth Bowen Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen, CBE was an Irish novelist and short story writer.-Life:Elizabeth Bowen was born on 7 June 1899 at 15 Herbert Place in Dublin, Ireland and was baptized in the nearby St Stephen's Church on Upper Mount Street... , Eva Trout Eva Trout (novel) Eva Trout is Elizabeth Bowen's final novel and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 1970. First published in 1968, it is about a young woman—the eponymous heroine—who, abandoned by her mother just after her birth, raised by nurses and nannies and educated by governesses all hired...	1969	Antonia Fraser Antonia Fraser Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, DBE , née Pakenham, is an Anglo-Irish author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction, best known as Antonia Fraser... , Mary, Queen of Scots
1970	Lily Powell, The Bird of Paradise	1970	Jasper Ridley Jasper Ridley Jasper Godwin Ridley was a British writer, known for historical biographies. He received the 1970 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his biography Lord Palmerston.... , Lord Palmerston Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, KG, GCB, PC , known popularly as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman who served twice as Prime Minister in the mid-19th century...
1971	Nadine Gordimer Nadine Gordimer Nadine Gordimer is a South African writer and political activist. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature when she was recognised as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity".Her writing has long dealt... , A Guest of Honour	1971	Julia Namier, Lewis Namier
1972	John Berger John Berger John Peter Berger is an English art critic, novelist, painter and author. His novel G. won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to a BBC series, is often used as a university text.-Education:Born in Hackney, London, England, Berger was... , G G. (novel) G. is a 1972 novel by John Berger. The novel's setting is pre-First World War Europe, and its protagonist, named "G.", is a Don Juan or Casanova-like lover of women who gradually comes to political consciousness after misadventures across the continent...	1972	Quentin Bell Quentin Bell Quentin Claudian Stephen Bell was an English art historian and author.Bell was the son of Clive Bell and Vanessa Bell , and the nephew of Virginia Woolf . He was educated in London and at the Quaker Leighton Park School.Principally an artist, as a potter, he was drawn to academia... , Virginia Woolf Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
1973	Iris Murdoch Iris Murdoch Dame Iris Murdoch DBE was an Irish-born British author and philosopher, best known for her novels about political and social questions of good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious... , The Black Prince The Black Prince (novel) The Black Prince is Iris Murdoch's 15th novel, first published in 1973. The name of the novel alludes mainly to Hamlet.-Plot summary:The Black Prince is remarkable for the structure of its narrative, consisting of a central story bookended by forewords and post-scripts by characters within it...	1973	Robin Lane Fox Robin Lane Fox Robin Lane Fox is an English historian, currently a Fellow of New College, Oxford and University of Oxford Reader in Ancient History.-Life:Lane Fox was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford.... , Alexander the Great
1974	Lawrence Durrell Lawrence Durrell Lawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer, though he resisted affiliation with Britain and preferred to be considered cosmopolitan... , Monsieur: or, The Prince of Darkness Monsieur (novel) Monsieur, published in 1974 and sub-titled The Prince of Darkness, is the first volume in Lawrence Durrell's The Avignon Quintet. As a group, the five novels narrate the lives of a group of Europeans prior to and after World War II. Monsieur begins the quincunx of novels with a metafictional...	1974	John Wain John Wain John Barrington Wain was an English poet, novelist, and critic, associated with the literary group "The Movement". For most of his life, Wain worked as a freelance journalist and author, writing and reviewing for newspapers and the radio. He seems to have married in 1947, since C. S... , Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
1975	Brian Moore Brian Moore (novelist) Brian Moore was a Northern Irish novelist and screenwriter who emigrated to Canada and later lived in the United States. He was acclaimed for the descriptions in his novels of life in Northern Ireland after the Second World War, in particular his explorations of the inter-communal divisions of The... , The Great Victorian Collection	1975	Karl Miller Karl Miller Karl Fergus Connor Miller FRSL is a British literary editor, critic and writer.He was educated at the Royal High School of Edinburgh and Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied English. He became literary editor of The Spectator and the New Statesman... , Cockburn's Millennium
1976	John Banville John Banville John Banville is an Irish novelist and screenwriter.Banville's breakthrough novel The Book of Evidence was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and won the Guinness Peat Aviation award. His eighteenth novel, The Sea, won the Man Booker Prize in 2005. He was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize in 2011... , Doctor Copernicus	1976	Ronald Hingley, A New Life of Chekhov Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
1977	John le Carré John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell , who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré"... , The Honourable Schoolboy The Honourable Schoolboy The Honourable Schoolboy is a spy novel by John le Carré. George Smiley tries to reconstruct an intelligence service and to run a successful offensive espionage operation to save the service from falling to the "war hawks" in government...	1977	George Painter George Painter George Duncan Painter, OBE known as George D. Painter, was an English author most famous as a biographer of Marcel Proust.... , Chateaubriand: Volume 1 - The Longed-For Tempests
1978	Maurice Gee Maurice Gee Maurice Gee is a New Zealand novelist.-Awards and honors:Gee was awarded the 1978 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel Plumb... , Plumb	1978	Robert Gittings Robert Gittings Robert William Victor Gittings CBE , was an English writer, biographer, BBC Radio producer, playwright and minor poet... , The Older Hardy
1979	William Golding William Golding Sir William Gerald Golding was a British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, best known for his novel Lord of the Flies... , Darkness Visible Darkness Visible (Golding) Darkness Visible is a 1979 novel by British author William Golding. The book won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. The title comes from Paradise Lost, from the line, "No light, but rather darkness visible"....	1979	Brian Finney, Christopher Isherwood Christopher Isherwood Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood was an English-American novelist.-Early life and work:Born at Wyberslegh Hall, High Lane, Cheshire in North West England, Isherwood spent his childhood in various towns where his father, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, was stationed... : A Critical Biography
1980	J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians Waiting for the Barbarians Waiting for the Barbarians is a novel by the South African-born author J. M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003. The novel was published in 1980. It was chosen by Penguin for its series Great Books of the 20th Century and won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and...	1980	Robert B. Martin, Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language.... : The Unquiet Heart
1981	Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children Midnight's Children Midnight's Children is a 1981 book by Salman Rushdie about India's transition from British colonialism to independence and the partition of India. It is considered an example of postcolonial literature and magical realism... , and Paul Theroux Paul Theroux Paul Edward Theroux is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work of travel writing is perhaps The Great Railway Bazaar . He has also published numerous works of fiction, some of which were made into feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his... , The Mosquito Coast The Mosquito Coast The Mosquito Coast is a 1986 American film directed by Peter Weir, based on the novel by Paul Theroux. The film stars Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, and River Phoenix. The film tells the story of a family that leaves the United States and tries to find a happier and simpler life in the jungles of...	1981	Victoria Glendinning Victoria Glendinning The Hon. Victoria Glendinning, CBE , is a British biographer, critic, broadcaster and novelist; she is President of English PEN, a winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, was awarded a CBE in 1998 and is Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature.- Biography :She was born in Sheffield... , Edith Sitwell Edith Sitwell Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell DBE was a British poet and critic.-Background:Edith Sitwell was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, the oldest child and only daughter of Sir George Sitwell, 4th Baronet, of Renishaw Hall; he was an expert on genealogy and landscaping... : Unicorn Among Lions
1982	Bruce Chatwin Bruce Chatwin Charles Bruce Chatwin was an English novelist and travel writer. He won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel On the Black Hill... , On The Black Hill On The Black Hill On the Black Hill is a novel by Bruce Chatwin published in 1982 and winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for that year. In 1987 it was made into a film, directed by Andrew Grieve.- Plot summary :...	1982	Richard Ellmann Richard Ellmann Richard David Ellmann was a prominent American literary critic and biographer of the Irish writers James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and William Butler Yeats... , James Joyce James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
1983	Jonathan Keates Jonathan Keates Jonathan Basil Keates, is an success English writer, biographer and novelist. He was educated at Bryanston School and went on to read for his undergraduate degree at Magdalen College, Oxford.... , Allegro Postillions	1983	Alan Walker Alan Walker (writer on music) Alan Walker, FRSC is an English-Canadian musicologist and university professor best known as a biographer and scholar of composer Franz Liszt.- Biography :... , Franz Liszt Franz Liszt Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age... : The Virtuoso Years
1984	J. G. Ballard J. G. Ballard James Graham Ballard was an English novelist, short story writer, and prominent member of the New Wave movement in science fiction... , Empire of the Sun Empire of the Sun Empire of the Sun is a 1984 novel by J. G. Ballard which was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Like Ballard's earlier short story, "The Dead Time" , it is essentially fiction but draws extensively on Ballard's experiences in World War II... , and Angela Carter Angela Carter Angela Carter was an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works... , Nights at the Circus Nights at the Circus Nights at the Circus is a novel by Angela Carter, first published in 1984 and that year's winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. The novel focuses on the life and exploits of Fevvers, a woman who is – or so she would have people believe – a Cockney virgin, hatched from an egg...	1984	Lyndall Gordon Lyndall Gordon Lyndall Gordon is a South African writer and academic, known for her literary biographies. Born in Cape Town, she was an undergraduate at the University of Cape Town, then a doctoral student at Columbia University... , Virginia Woolf Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.... : A Writer's Life
1985	Robert Edric Robert Edric Robert Edric is the pseudonym of Gary Edric Armitage, a British novelist born in Sheffield.His trilogy of detective novels, Cradle Song, Siren Song, and Swan Song, also known as the "Song Cycle," are set in the city of Hull.... , Winter Garden	1985	David Nokes David Nokes David Nokes FRSL was a scholar of 18th century English literature known for his biographies of Jonathan Swift, John Gay, Jane Austen and Samuel Johnson. He also penned screenplays, including a BBC adaptation of Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa and an adaptation of Anne Brontë's The Tenant of... , Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St... : A Hypocrite Reversed
1986	Jenny Joseph Jenny Joseph -Life and career:She was born in Birmingham, and with a scholarship, studied English literature at St Hilda's College, Oxford .Her poems were first published when she was at university in the early 1950s... , Persephone	1986	Dame Felicitas Corrigan Felicitas Corrigan Dame Felicitas Corrigan OSB was an English Benedictine nun, author and humanitarian.She was born Kathleen Corrigan into a large Liverpool family, and developed a talent as an organist. In 1933, she entered Stanbrook Abbey in Worcestershire as a nun, and eventually became director of its choir... , Helen Waddell Helen Waddell Helen Jane Waddell was an Irish poet, translator and playwright.-Biography:She was born in Tokyo, the tenth and youngest child of Hugh Waddell, a Presbyterian minister and missionary who was lecturing in the Imperial University. She spent the first eleven years of her life in Japan before her...
1987	George Mackay Brown George Mackay Brown George Mackay Brown , was a Scottish poet, author and dramatist, whose work has a distinctly Orcadian character... , The Golden Bird: Two Orkney Stories	1987	Ruth Dudley Edwards, Victor Gollancz Victor Gollancz Sir Victor Gollancz was a British publisher, socialist, and humanitarian.-Early life:Born in Maida Vale, London, he was the son of a wholesale jeweller and nephew of Rabbi Professor Sir Hermann Gollancz and Professor Sir Israel Gollancz; after being educated at St Paul's School, London and taking... : A Biography
1988	Piers Paul Read Piers Paul Read Piers Paul Read, FRSL is a British novelist and non-fiction writer.-Background:Read was born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire... , A Season in the West	1988	Brian McGuinness, Wittgenstein, A Life: Young Ludwig (1889-1921)
1989	James Kelman James Kelman James Kelman is an influential writer of novels, short stories, plays and political essays. His novel A Disaffection was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 1989... , A Disaffection	1989	Ian Gibson Ian Gibson (author) Ian Gibson is an Irish author and Hispanist known for his biographies of Antonio Machado, Salvador Dalí, Henry Spencer Ashbee, and particularly his work on Federico García Lorca, for which he won several awards, including the 1989 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography... , Federico García Lorca Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads... : A Life
1990	William Boyd William Boyd (writer) William Boyd, CBE is a Scottish novelist and screenwriter.-Biography:Of Scottish descent, Boyd spent his early life in Ghana and Nigeria, in Africa... , Brazzaville Beach Brazzaville Beach Brazzaville Beach is a novel by William Boyd, for which he was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for 1990, and the McVitie's Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year. The book tells the story of a woman researching chimpanzees, Hope Clearwater, and the circumstances that brought her to...	1990	Claire Tomalin Claire Tomalin Claire Tomalin is an English biographer and journalist. She was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge.She was literary editor of the New Statesman and of the Sunday Times, and has written several noted biographies... , The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan Ellen Ternan Ellen Lawless Ternan , also known as Nelly Ternan or Nelly Robinson, was an English actress who is mainly known as the woman for whom Charles Dickens separated from his wife Catherine.-Life:...  and Charles Dickens Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
1991	Iain Sinclair Iain Sinclair Iain Sinclair FRSL is a British writer and filmmaker. Much of his work is rooted in London, most recently within the influences of psychogeography.-Life and work:... , Downriver	1991	Adrian Desmond and James Moore James Moore (biographer) James Richard Moore, historian of science at the Open University and the University of Cambridge and visiting scholar at Harvard University, is noted as the author of several biographies of Charles Darwin... , Darwin Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
1992	Rose Tremain Rose Tremain Rose Tremain CBE is an English author.-Life:Rose Tremain was born Rosemary Jane Thomson on August 2, 1943 in London and attended Francis Holland School then Crofton Grange School from 1954 to 1961; the Sorbonne from 1961–1962; and graduated from the University of East Anglia in 1965 where she then... , Sacred Country Sacred Country Sacred Country is a novel by English author Rose Tremain, it was published in 1992 by Sinclair Stevenson and won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and Prix Femina Etranger. It has been compared to Virginia Woolf's Orlando.-Plot introduction:...	1992	Charles Nicholl Charles Nicholl (author) Charles Nicholl is an award-winning English author specializing in works of history, biography, literary detection, and travel. His subjects have included Christopher Marlowe, Arthur Rimbaud, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Nashe, and most recently William Shakespeare. Besides his literary output,... , The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
1993	Caryl Phillips Caryl Phillips Caryl Phillips is a British writer with a Caribbean background, best known as a novelist. He is now professor at Yale University and a visiting professor at Barnard College of Columbia University.-Life:... , Crossing the River Crossing the River Crossing the River is a historical fiction novel by British author Caryl Phillips, published in 1993. The Village Voice calls it "a fearless reimagining of the geography and meaning of the African diaspora." The Boston Globe said, "Crossing the River bears eloquently chastened testimony to the...	1993	Richard Holmes Richard Holmes (biographer) Richard Holmes, OBE, FRSL, FBA is a British author and academic best known for his biographical studies of major figures of British and French Romanticism.-Biography:... , Dr Johnson and Mr Savage
1994	Alan Hollinghurst Alan Hollinghurst Alan Hollinghurst is a British novelist, and winner of the 2004 Man Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty.-Biography:Hollinghurst was born on 26 May 1954 in Stroud, Gloucestershire, the only child of James Hollinghurst, a bank manager, and his wife, Elizabeth... , The Folding Star The Folding Star -Plot summary:The novel is the story of an English gay man, Edward Manners, who, disaffected with life, moves to a town in Flanders where he teaches two students English. One, Marcel, is good but ugly while the other, Luc, is bad but, to the protagonist, deeply beautiful...	1994	Doris Lessing Doris Lessing Doris May Lessing CH is a British writer. Her novels include The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook, and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos.... , Under My Skin
1995	Christopher Priest Christopher Priest (English novelist) Christopher Priest is an English novelist and science fiction writer. His works include Fugue for a Darkening Island, Inverted World, The Affirmation, The Glamour, The Prestige and The Separation.Priest has been strongly influenced by the science fiction of H. G... , The Prestige The Prestige The Prestige is a 1995 novel by British writer Christopher Priest. The novel is epistolary in structure: that is, it purports to be a collection of real diaries that were kept by the protagonists and later collated...	1995	Gitta Sereny Gitta Sereny Gitta Sereny is an Austrian-born biographer, historian and investigative journalist whose writing focuses mainly on the Holocaust and child abuse. She is the stepdaughter of the economist Ludwig von Mises.... , Albert Speer Albert Speer Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office... : His Battle with Truth
1996	Graham Swift Graham Swift Graham Colin Swift FRSL is a British author. He was born in London, England and educated at Dulwich College, London, Queens' College, Cambridge, and later the University of York. He was a friend of Ted Hughes... , Last Orders Last Orders Last Orders is a 1996 Booker Prize-winning novel by British author Graham Swift. In 2001 it was adapted for the film Last Orders by Australian writer and director Fred Schepisi.-Plot summary:... , and Alice Thompson Alice Thompson Alice Thompson is a Scottish novelist.Thompson read English at Oxford and wrote her Ph.D. thesis on Henry James. In the 1980s she was a rock musician with the band The Woodentops. She now has a young son and lives in Edinburgh... , Justine	1996	Diarmaid MacCulloch Diarmaid MacCulloch Diarmaid Ninian John MacCulloch FBA, FSA, FR Hist S is Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford... , Thomas Cranmer Thomas Cranmer Thomas Cranmer was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build a favourable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon which resulted in the separation of the English Church from... : A Life
1997	Andrew Miller Andrew Miller (novelist) Andrew Miller is an English novelist.He grew up in the West Country and has lived in Spain, Japan, Ireland and France.... , Ingenious Pain Ingenious Pain Ingenious Pain is the first novel by English author, Andrew Miller, released on 20th February 1997 through Sceptre. The novel received universal acclaim and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Italian Premio Grinzane Cavour...	1997	R. F. Foster R. F. Foster R. F. Foster may refer to:*Robert Frederick Foster , disseminator of the rules of many card games*R. F. Foster , Robert Fitzroy Foster , professor of Irish History... , W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms... : A Life, Volume 1 - The Apprentice Mage 1965-1914
1998	Beryl Bainbridge Beryl Bainbridge Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge, DBE was an English author from Liverpool. She was primarily known for her psychological novels, often set amongst the English working classes. Bainbridge won the Whitbread Awards prize for best novel in 1977 and 1996; she was nominated five times for the Booker... , Master Georgie Master Georgie Master Georgie is a 1998 historical novel by English novelist Beryl Bainbridge. It deals with the British experience of the Crimean War through the adventures of the eponymous central character George Hardy, who volunteers to work on the battlefields....	1998	Peter Ackroyd Peter Ackroyd Peter Ackroyd CBE is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a particular interest in the history and culture of London. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, Charles Dickens, T. S. Eliot and Sir Thomas More he won the Somerset Maugham Award... , The Life of Thomas More Thomas More Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...
1999	Timothy Mo Timothy Mo Timothy Peter Mo is an Anglo-Chinese novelist. Born to a Welsh-Yorkshire mother and a Hong Kong Chinese father, Mo lived in Hong Kong until the age of 10 before he moved to Britain, studying at St John's College, Oxford.He self-publishes his books under the label "Paddleless Press".- Novels :*The... , Renegade, or Halo2	1999	Kathryn Hughes Kathryn Hughes Kathryn Hughes is a British historian, biographer and journalist. Educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University and the University of East Anglia; her doctorate in Victorian History was developed into her first book, The Victorian Governess... , George Eliot George Eliot Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era... : The Last Victorian
2000	Zadie Smith Zadie Smith Zadie Smith is a British novelist. To date she has written three novels. In 2003, she was included on Granta's list of 20 best young authors... , White Teeth White Teeth White Teeth is a 2000 novel by the British author Zadie Smith. It focuses on the later lives of two wartime friends—the Bangladeshi Samad Iqbal and the Englishman Archie Jones, and their families in London...	2000	Martin Amis Martin Amis Martin Louis Amis is a British novelist, the author of many novels including Money and London Fields . He is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, but will step down at the end of the 2010/11 academic year... , Experience
2001	Sid Smith Sid Smith (writer) Sid Smith is an award-winning English novelist and journalist.-Life and career:Smith was born in Preston, Lancashire, the son of a lorry driver. For seven years he worked in labouring jobs, including dustman, gravedigger and construction worker... , Something Like a House	2001	Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, Baron Keynes of Tilton, CB FBA , was a British economist whose ideas have profoundly affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, as well as the economic policies of governments... : Volume 3 - Fighting for Britain 1937-1946
2002	Jonathan Franzen Jonathan Franzen Jonathan Franzen is an American novelist and essayist. His third novel, The Corrections , a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction... , The Corrections The Corrections The Corrections is a 2001 novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. It revolves around the troubles of an elderly Midwestern couple and their three adult children, tracing their lives from the mid-twentieth century to "one last Christmas" together near the turn of the millennium...	2002	Jenny Uglow Jenny Uglow Jennifer Sheila Uglow OBE is a British biographer, critic and publisher. The editorial director of Chatto & Windus, she has written critically acclaimed biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell, William Hogarth, Thomas Bewick and the Lunar Society, among others, and has also compiled a women's... , The Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made the Future 1730-1810
2003	Andrew O'Hagan Andrew O'Hagan Andrew O'Hagan, FRSL is a Scottish novelist and non-fiction author. He is also an Editor at Large of Esquire and is currently a creative writing fellow at King's College London. He was selected by for inclusion in their 2003 list of the top 20 young British novelists. His novels appear... , Personality	2003	Janet Browne, Charles Darwin Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory... : Volume 2 - The Power of Place
2004	David Peace David Peace David Peace is an English author. Known for his novels GB84, The Damned Utd, and Red Riding Quartet, Peace was named one of the Best of Young British Novelists by Granta in their 2003 list... , GB84	2004	Jonathan Bate Jonathan Bate Jonathan Bate CBE FBA FRSL is a British academic, biographer, critic, broadcaster, novelist and scholar of Shakespeare, Romanticism and Ecocriticism... , John Clare John Clare John Clare was an English poet, born the son of a farm labourer who came to be known for his celebratory representations of the English countryside and his lamentation of its disruption. His poetry underwent a major re-evaluation in the late 20th century and he is often now considered to be among... : A Biography
2005	Ian McEwan Ian McEwan Ian Russell McEwan CBE, FRSA, FRSL is a British novelist and screenwriter, and one of Britain's most highly regarded writers. In 2008, The Times named him among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".... , Saturday Saturday (novel) Saturday is a novel by Ian McEwan set in Fitzrovia, London, on Saturday, 15 February 2003, during a large demonstration against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The protagonist, Henry Perowne, a 48-year-old neurosurgeon, has planned a series of chores and pleasures culminating in a family dinner in the...	2005	Sue Prideaux Sue Prideaux Sue Prideaux, is an English novelist and biographer. She has strong links to Norway and her godmother was painted by Edvard Munch, whose biography she later wrote under the title Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream... , Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream (Edvard Munch Edvard Munch Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Symbolist painter, printmaker and an important forerunner of expressionist art. His best-known composition, The Scream, is part of a series The Frieze of Life, in which Munch explored the themes of love, fear, death, melancholia, and anxiety.- Childhood :Edvard Munch... )
2006	Cormac McCarthy Cormac McCarthy Cormac McCarthy is an American novelist and playwright. He has written ten novels, spanning the Southern Gothic, Western, and modernist genres. He received the Pulitzer Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction for The Road... , The Road	2006	Byron Rogers Byron Rogers (author) Byron Rogers is a Welsh journalist, essayist and biographer. In August, 2007 the University of Edinburgh awarded him the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for the best biography published in the previous year, for The Man Who Went Into the West: The Life of RS Thomas... , The Man Who Went into the West: The life of R. S. Thomas (R. S. Thomas R. S. Thomas Ronald Stuart Thomas was a Welsh poet and Anglican clergyman, noted for his nationalism, spirituality and deep dislike of the anglicisation of Wales... )
2007	Rosalind Belben Rosalind Belben Rosalind Belben is an English novelist. She was born in 1941 in Dorset where she now lives. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her novel Our Horses in Egypt won the James Tait Black Award in 2007. Among her other books are Bogies, Reuben Little Hero, The Limit, Dreaming of Dead... , Our Horses in Egypt	2007	Rosemary Hill Rosemary Hill Rosemary Hill is an English writer and historian. She has published widely on 19th and 20th century cultural history, but she is best known for God's Architect, her multi-award-winning biography of Augustus Pugin... , God's Architect: Pugin Pugin Pugin most commonly refers to Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin , English architect and designer.Other members of his family include:...  and the Building of Romantic Britain
2008	Sebastian Barry Sebastian Barry Sebastian Barry is an Irish playwright, novelist, and poet. He has been shortlisted twice for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction and has won the 2008 Costa Book of the Year.... , The Secret Scripture The Secret Scripture The Secret Scripture is a 2008 novel written by Irish playwright Sebastian Barry.-Plot summary:The main character is a one-hundred year old woman, Roseanne McNulty, who now resides in the Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital. Having been a patient for some fifty years or more, Roseanne decides to...	2008	Michael Holroyd Michael Holroyd Sir Michael De Courcy Fraser Holroyd, FRHS, FRSL is an English biographer.-Life:Holroyd was born in London and educated at Eton College, though he has often claimed Maidenhead Public Library as his alma mater.... , A Strange Eventful History
2009	A. S. Byatt A. S. Byatt Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner... , The Children's Book The Children's Book The Children's Book is a 2009 novel by British writer A.S. Byatt. It follows the adventures of several inter-related families, adults and children, from 1895 through World War I. Loosely based upon the life of children's writer E. Nesbit there are secrets slowly revealed that show that the...	2009	John Carey John Carey (critic) John Carey is a British literary critic, and emeritus Merton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford. He was born in Barnes, London, and educated at Richmond and East Sheen Boys’ Grammar School, winning an Open Scholarship to St John's College, Oxford. He served in the East... , William Golding: The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies
2010	Tatjana Soli Tatjana Soli Tatjana Soli is an American novelist and short story writer.-Life:She graduated from Stanford University, and the Warren Wilson College with an MFA.... , The Lotus Eaters The Lotus Eaters (novel) The Lotus Eaters is an award-winning novel by Tatjana Soli. It tells the story of an American woman, Helen Adams, who goes to Vietnam to cover the war as a combat photojournalist...	2010	Hilary Spurling Hilary Spurling Hilary Spurling, CBE, FRSL is a British writer, known as a journalist and biographer. She won the Whitbread Prize for the second volume of her biography of Henri Matisse in January 2006... , Burying the Bones: Pearl Buck in China

External links

• James Tait Black Prizes homepage, University of Edinburgh
• Windows Media video report of the 2007 James Tait Black Prize ceremony
• James Tait Black Prizes homepage, University of Edinburgh
• New Statesman article on the James Tait Black and Booker prizes
• James Tait Black feature on the BBC Radio 4's 'Open Book' (includes audio link)