Shortlist Surge by Jay Bernard Small Days and Nights by Tishani Doshi Underland by Robert Macfarlane 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak A Small Silence by Jumoke Verissimo Longlist When the Tree Falls by Jane Clarke On Chapel Sands: My mother and other missing persons by Laura Cumming Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann Nightingale Point by Luan Goldie Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham Surfacing by Kathleen Jamie Arabs: A 3,000-Year History of Peoples, Tribes, and Empires by Tim Mackintosh-Smith The Summer Isles by Philip Marsden Nia by Robert Minhinnick The Inside City by Anita Mir Lanny by Max Porter The Bells of Old Tokyo: Travels in Japanese Time by Anna Sherman
2019 Winner The Wife’s Tale by Aida Edemariam
Shortlist No Turning Back by Rania Abouzeid Happiness by Aminatta Forna Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss The Crossway by Guy Stagg Kings of the Yukon by Adam Weymouth
Longlist Perfidious Albion by Sam Byers Little by Edward Carey Middle England by Jonathan Coe Where the road runs out by Gaia Holmes The Café de Move-on Blues by Christopher Hope A Stranger’s Pose by Emmanuel Iduma Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile by Alice Jolly Arkady by Patrick Langley A Line in the River by Jamal Mahjoub Let Me Be Like Water by SK Perry From A Low And Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan The Dictionary of Animal Languages by Heidi Sopinka The Valley at the Centre of Our World by Malachy Tallack Wilding by Isabella Tree
2018 Winner Mama Amazonica by Pascale Petit
Shortlist The Epic City by Kushanava Choudhury Once Upon a Time in the East by Xiaolu Guo Peculiar Ground by Lucy Hughes-Hallett Border by Kapka Kassabova Elmet by Fiona Mozley
2017 Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
Shortlist The Outrun by Amy Liptrot In a Land of Paper Gods by Rebecca Mackenzie Augustown by Kei Miller Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain by Barney Norris The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain
2016 Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia by Peter Pomerantsev 2015 Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood by Justin Marozzi 2014 This Boy: A Memoir of a Childhood by Alan Johnson 2013 Scenes from Early Life by Philip Hensher 2012 The Sly Company of People Who Care by Rahul Bhattacharya 2011 The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal 2010 The Dead Yard: Tales of Modern Jamaica by Ian Thomson 2009 Sissinghurst: an Unfinished History by Adam Nicolson 2008 The Discovery of France by Graham Robb 2007 In The Country of Men by Hisham Matar 2006 The People’s Act of Love by James Meek 2005 The Places in Between by Rory Stewart 2004 Hearing Birds Fly by Louisa Waugh
Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize
2002 Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller 2001 No Bones by Anna Burns 2000 Kit's Law by Donna Morrissey 1999 Our Fathers by Andrew O'Hagan 1998 The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden 1997 Traplines by Eden Robinson 1996 A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry 1995 Archangel by Paul Watkins 1994 Signals of Distress by Jim Crace 1993 The Lights Below by Carl MacDougall 1992 Ulverton by Adam Thorpe 1991 O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker 1990 Lives of the Saints by Nino Ricci 1989 Fludd by Hilary Mantel 1988 The Blindfold Horse by Shusha Guppy 1986 The Bridge by Maggie Hemingway 1984 A Nation of Fools by Balraj Khanna 1983 Waterland by Graham Swift 1982 A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro 1981 A Breed of Heroes by Alan Judd 1980 Poppie by Elsa Joubert 1978 The Stone Arrow by Richard Herley 1977 Fire on the Mountain by Anita Desai 1976 Victims by Eugene McCabe 1975 Black Faces, White Faces by Jane Gardam 1974 The Pandora Valley by Graham King 1973 Articles of Faith by Ronald Harwood 1973 I Didn't Know You Cared by Peter Tinniswood 1971 Last Cool Days by John Stewart 1970 Fireflies by Shiva Naipaul 1969 The Humming-Bird Tree by Ian McDonald 1968 The Round Tower by Catherine Cookson 1967 The Big Meeting by David Bean