HWA / Goldsboro Crown for Historical Debut Fiction

Goldsboro Crown award for historical fiction is announced from the Historical Writers’ Association

Goldsboro Books and the Historical Writers’ Association are pleased to announce the four shortlisted titles for their inaugural Award: the HWA/Goldsboro Prize for Best Debut Historical Novel.   The Award, in its first year, accepted submissions from authors of historical novels first published in English, in the UK from October 2010 to the end of September 2011: for the purposes of the Award, ‘historical’ is defined as any period in the past 35 years or more from the time of publication.

The judges were Maria Rejt, Publisher at PanMacmillan, author and historian Tom Holland, David Headley, Managing Director of Goldsboro Books, blogger and reviewer, Ayo Onatade, blogger. and Manda Scott, author and Chair of the HWA.

Submitted books covered a wide range of styles, periods and approaches, leading to a lively and forthright judging meeting, at which four books were finally -and deservedly chosen for the short list.

They are, in alphabetical order of the author:

The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno, by Ellen Bryson, published by Picador

Partitions, by Amit Majmudar, published by OneWorld Publications

Mistress of My Fate by Hallie Rubenhold, published by Doubleday

The Emperor’s Gold, by Robert Wilton, published by Corvus

Manda Scott, Chair of the HWA said, “Our first year saw an excellent crop of first historical novels and choosing a short list was difficult; inevitably, it comes down to personal opinion, but we have a judging panel of widely varying reading tastes which gives everyone a decent chance.  It was relatively easy to pick the short list: these four stood out as being exceptional – any author would have been proud to write any of them at any point in his or her career, but to have written them as a first novel is exceptional.  Picking a winner will be immensely difficult, but before we do, I want to encourage everyone to read all of these: they hail from widely differing eras  and locations and are written in utterly different styles, but each one is magnificent.”

Goldsboro Books has sponsored the £2,000 pirze, and has commissioned a hand made crystal Award which will be presented to the winner at History in the Court on 20th September 2012, at Goldsboro Books in Cecil Court.

NOTES TO EDITORS

The first Goldsboro Crown for Historical Debut Fiction will be awarded at History in the Court in September 2012.

This award is for the best historical novel by a first-time author of any nationality first published in the UK in English during the Judging Period. ‘Best historical novel by a first time author’ means that the author must not have had a novel of any sort published before under any name whatsoever. In the case of novels with more than one author, all the authors must meet this requirement.  Authors may have written non-fiction works prior to the publication of the submitted novel.

We would like submissions for next year’s award. Further detail and prize rules may be found at the Historical Writers’ Association website www.thehwa.co.uk or by emailingGoldsboro.Crown@goldsborobooks.com

For further information, logos and interviews with the judges please contact:

Ayo Onatade or David Headley  Tel: 0207 4979230

Email Goldsboro.Crown@goldsborobooks.com

ABOUT THE JUDGES

MARIA REJT is the publisher of the Pan Macmillan imprint Mantle and is one of the most respected editors currently working in UK publishing. Her current list of authors includes C J Sansom, Kate Morton, Bella Pollen, Benjamin Black (aka John Banville) and William Ryan.

TOM HOLLAND is an author and historian. His first work of history, Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic, won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. His second, Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West, won the Anglo-Hellenic League’s Runciman Award. His new book, Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom is out now, published by Little, Brown.

MANDA SCOTT Manda Scott was born and educated in Scotland, gaining a degree in Veterinary medicine and surgery from the University of Glasgow before moving to Cambridge to take up a position as house surgeon. In 2000, she began to write historical fiction. The Boudica: Dreaming quartet have been bestsellers around the world, translated into over a dozen languages. The Crystal Skull followed, a dual time-line novel which explores the Mayan 2012 end-of-world prophecies in contemporary and Tudor time frames and was translated into 19 languages.

DAVID HEADLEY is the Managing Director of Goldsboro Books Limited, a much admired central London independent bookshop.

AYO ONATADE is a well known and respected blogger and reviewer and has a particular passion for historical novels as well as crime fiction.