Walter Scott Prize Masterclass Series 2013: the shortlisted authors speak about their work.

Sunday June 2nd: Rose Tremain on ‘musicality’

Tuesday June 4th: Pat Barker on the ‘deepest drives’

Thursday June 6th: Anthony Quinn on ‘astonishing disparities’

Saturday June 8th: Hilary Mantel ‘like some inky clerk with a quill, scratching to keep up’

Catch up with the rest of our articles on the Walter Scott Prize 2013 here, or read our series on the WSP 2012 here, or follow the Borders Book Festival coverage of the award here.

26 October 2013, 2-4 pm
The Studios, M Shed, Princes Wharf, Wapping Road, Bristol BS1 4RN
Free entry

Historical novelist Julian Stockwin, Bristol author Lucienne Boyce, historian Adrian Tinniswood and Dr Steve Poole, University of the West of England offer advice on researching Bristol’s maritime past. This open discussion will be of interest to writers and readers of historical fiction, and anyone with a passion for Bristol’s maritime past.

Julian Stockwin is the author of the exciting Kydd novels, set in the Great Age of Fighting Sail. Local writer Lucienne Boyce’s novel, To The Fair Land, centres on a voyage from Bristol to the South Seas. Adrian Tinniswood is a historian who has recently published Pirates of Barbary, Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in the 17th-Century Mediterranean. Dr Steve Poole is Associate Professor of Social and Cultural History at the University of the West of England, and editor of and contributor to A City Built Upon the Water: Maritime Bristol 1750-1900.

The event, organised in partnership with Bristol’s M Shed, is part of the Historical Novel Society’s exciting new initiative “Meet the Historians” which aims to bring together members of the public and experts such as historians, archaeologists, genealogists, librarians, archivists and fiction and non-fiction writers.

This is a free event but please book your place by emailing gerardboyce@blueyonder.co.uk

Please email Richard at historical novel society dot org if you would be interested in becoming our new UK membership secretary. The workload is quite light. You’ll be processing the memberships of those who renew or join by post. Occasionally we may need membership reminders sent out, or other circulars, and to send out replacement magazines for those that go missing. Thank you!

Historical novelists Manda Scott and Ben Kane; Professor Kate Robson-Brown of the University of Bristol; and museum curator Gail Boyle explore the relationship between Roman fact and Roman historical fiction in a free event at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. The afternoon will include a special introduction to the exhibition ‘Roman Empire: Power and People’ by curator Gail Boyle for attendees of this event who have either already visited the exhibition (proof of ticket purchase required), or who will be visiting it on 19 October. (Please note: there is a charge for entry to the exhibition.)

The event is part of a programme of activities accompanying the Roman Empire: Power and People exhibition, when objects from the British Museum will be displayed alongside objects from Bristol Museum’s own collections. The event has been organised by the Historical Novel Society in partnership with the Bristol Museum as part of the HNS’s “Meet the Historians” initiative which brings together members of the public and experts such as historians, archaeologists, genealogists, librarians, archivists and fiction and non-fiction writers.

“From Roman Fact to Roman Fiction” is a free event, but please note there is a charge for entry to the exhibition. Booking is essential as places are limited. Please email gail.boyle@bristol.gov.uk or telephone her on 0117 9223587.

The shortlist for the fourth £25,000 Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction is announced today by the judging panel. The six novels, with settings ranging from Tudor and Restoration England to the slums of Victorian London, and from the bloody battlefields of the Western Front in World War One to the highlands of Malaysia during the ‘Malayan Emergency’, encompass a giddying diversity of setting in both time and place, echoing the oeuvre of the writer after whom the prize is named, Sir Walter Scott.

The shortlist is:
TOBY’S ROOM by Pat Barker THE DAUGHTERS OF MARS by Thomas Keneally
BRING UP THE BODIES by Hilary Mantel
THE STREETS by Anthony Quinn
THE GARDEN OF EVENING MISTS by Tan Twan Eng
MERIVEL by Rose Tremain

The judges commented:
“This year’s shortlist is rich and complex, contains breathtaking writing, and gloriously unexpected stories which refresh understandings of history in a way in which Sir Walter Scott would have approved. The shortlist exemplifies the extraordinary quality of newly-published writing that is set in the past: from ancient to recent history.”

The shortlisted books are by authors from Australia and Malaysia, as well as from England, strengthening the international dimension brought to the prize by last year’s opening up of the rules to include writers from the Commonwealth. Books must have been written in English, with the majority of their setting being at least 60 years ago, in keeping with the prize’s definition of ‘historical’ borrowed from Walter Scott himself in the subtitle of his Waverley novels: ‘Tis Sixty Years Since.’

The Walter Scott Prize, founded in 2009 by the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and awarded at the Brewin Dolphin Borders Book Festival in June, is the largest annual UK prize to be judged outside London, and honours the legacy and achievements of Sir Walter Scott, founder of the historical novel. Scott’s influence has been further revived this year, with several new books and documentaries on his life, a new radio adaptation of his work read by David Tennant, and the re-opening of his Borders home Abbotsford after substantial restoration.

The judging panel for the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction comprises Kirsty Wark, Louise Richardson, Jonathan Tweedie, Elizabeth Laird, Elizabeth Buccleuch, and chair Alistair Moffat. The judges’ criteria include originality and innovation, quality of writing, a strong narrative, and the ability of a book to shed light on the present as well as the past. Books can be by writers living in the UK, Ireland or the Commonwealth as long as they are writing in English and the book is first published in these countries.

Shortlisted authors are invited to attend the award ceremony and announcement on Friday 14th June, which is a public event as part of the Brewin Dolphin Borders Book Festival in Melrose, near Scott’s home Abbotsford. As well as enjoying the hospitality of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch at their home Bowhill, shortlisted authors this year will also exclusively be offered a private preview tour of Abbotsford following its restoration.

The Judges said of the shortlisted books:

TOBY’S ROOM Pat Barker
“The story, which is approached obliquely through the lens of solving a mystery, is beautifully simple whilst capturing complex characters, and contains the most exquisite writing. Pat Barker is where she wants to be in this period; she is a master.”

THE DAUGHTERS OF MARS Thomas Keneally
“Sheds new light on a well-documented period in history and from a different and hugely effective viewpoint. The atmosphere is evoked brilliantly, and it draws you in to the lives of everyday people affected by momentous events with masterful ease.”

BRING UP THE BODIES Hilary Mantel
“Hilary Mantel lends a superb and cleverly contemporary spin to the well-known story of Anne Boleyn, and Bring up the Bodies is a highly readable, intelligent novel that effortlessly fulfils the criterion of the Walter Scott Prize that work should shed light on the present as well as the past.”

THE STREETS Anthony Quinn
“This novel is refreshingly different and contains a cornucopia of wonderful material and evocative descriptions, from opulent ballroom to appalling slum tenement. Anthony Quinn is an excellent writer, and universal themes of loss of identity and community are well-covered here.”

THE GARDEN OF EVENING MISTS Tan Twan Eng
“This is a richly enigmatic, layered novel, which portrays the complexity of Malaya at that time, as well as the jaggedness of relationships, sensitively providing multiple glimpses of cultural identities.”

MERIVEL Rose Tremain
“A marvellously rollicking good read, and it is such a pleasure to meet Robert Merivel again. Rose Tremain brings the character to life in a way that makes you want to find out even more about the period. Enormously skilled and deft.”

For further information and images please contact:
Rebecca Salt or Nicky Stonehill at StonehillSalt PR
Tel 01620 829 800 email rebecca@stonehillsalt.co.uk

In the Primary School Shortlist:

Schools up and down the country reviewed the entries – many of the reviews can be found on the Historical Association website www.history.org.uk – and after much debate the shortlists were drawn up. Judges will now decide the winner in each category, and these will be announced in mid may, and presented to the winning authors at the HA Presentation Evening, at the Institute of Education, on June 18th. For more information on the Young Quills, or the shortlists, please contact Alf Wilkinson.

Historical Novel Society International Award

Lost Paradise
by
Martin Sutton

• Richard Lee of the Historical Novel Society called it ‘the best novel I have read about the Great War since Birdsong.’
• Matthew Bates, fiction buyer for W.H. Smith Travel, praised ‘a haunting, generational novel of war, love, secrets and lies,’ which, he believes, will appeal to a wide and varied pool of readers, ‘with the scope of, say, a Kate Morton’.
• Carole Blake of Blake Friedmann immediately signed the author, and relishes the chance of introducing the book to editors at the London Book Fair.

About:
A gardener on the Heligan estate, young William Pascoe is wrenched away from a blossoming but difficult romance, to fight at the front on the Somme. Contrasting the horror of trench warfare with the terror of those left behind in Britain, this powerful First World War debut novel is the winner of the first Historical Novel Society International Award.

For further information, please contact Richard Lee (richard@historicalnovelsociety.org)

For rights enquiries, please contact Carole Blake (carole@blakefriedmann.co.uk) or Louise Brice (louise@blakefriedmann.co.uk) – they will both be at tables in the International Rights Centre for the duration of the London Book Fair

See also: Blake Friedmann’s author page for Martin, and this article in the Bookseller.

We are looking for writers (interviewers, news writers, opinion writers, people who are prepared to chase content and variety) but ALSO ‘staff’ (planners, organisers, people prepared to sub and post other people’s writing to the website, and people who will promote the material via social media et al). So you can put your hand up for either or both – but we really need people who can commit time and energy.

The core idea is that publicists approach us daily offering interview opportunities, blogs, giveaways and other good stuff – but we pass by almost all of them because we don’t have the staff to evaluate and pursue them. If we can get a strong team organised we can change that.

We would like to make the HNS website a reader-centred destination site for historical fiction. We already supply a wide and authoritative review coverage. We would now like to expand further to broaden our news and features coverage.

Please write to Richard at historical novel society. org for more information, or join our website team on Facebook and see who we have slated for interviews right now.

Here’s more about the retreat:

The Salt Cay Writers Retreat is for literary and upmarket commercial fiction writers, memoirists, and narrative non-fiction writers. Published authors who wish to take their writing to the next level are welcome to apply.

The retreat takes place October 20-26 on Salt Cay, Bahamas, a private island available exclusively to Backspace which was a former writer’s retreat in the 20’s-60’s where William Styron wrote Sophie’s Choice.We have a lot of intriguing events planned including a sunset dinner cruise around Nassau harbor, swimming with dolphins (really!), and plenty of time to allow writers to write in one of the most beautiful, secluded, relaxing places one can imagine.

Faculty members include:

Authors:

Robert Goolrick, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Jacquelyn Mitchard, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Editors:

Chuck Adams, Executive Editor, Algonquin Books (Water for Elephants)
Amy Einhorn, Publisher and Vice President, Amy Einhorn Books (The Help)
Kate Miciak, Editorial Directory and Vice President, Ballantine/Bantam

Agents:

Michelle Brower, Folio Literary Management
Steven Fisher, Vice President, Agency for the Performing Arts
Erin Harris, Folio Literary Management
Jeff Kleinman, Founder, Folio Literary Management
Erin Nuimata, Senior Vice President, Folio Literary Management.