Authors' Club Best First Novel Award

The Authors' Club Best First Novel Award is awarded by the Authors' Club to the most promising first novel of the year, written by a British author and published in the UK during the calendar year preceding the year in which the award is presented.^[1]

Winner

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (May 2024)

It has been awarded to the following:^[2]

• 1954 – David Unwin – The Governor's Wife
• 1955 – Brian Moore – Judith Hearne (later republished as The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne)
• 1956 – Harry Bloom – Episode
• 1957 – Edmund Ward – Summer in Retreat
• 1958 – Alan Sillitoe – Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
• 1959 – David Caute – At Fever Pitch
• 1960 – Lionel Davidson – The Night of Wenceslas
• 1961 – Jim Hunter – The Sun in the Morning
• 1962 – John Pearson – Gone to Timbuctoo
• 1963 –
  David Rubin
  – The Greater Darkness
• 1964 – Robin Douglas-Home – Hot for Certainties
• 1965 – James Mossman – Beggars on Horseback
• 1966 – Leslie Thomas – The Virgin Soldiers
• 1967 – Paul Bailey – At the Jerusalem
• 1968 – Barry England – Figures in a Landscape
• 1969 – Peter Tinniswood – A Touch of Daniel
• 1970 – Rachel Ingalls – Theft
• 1971 – Rosemary Hawley Jarman – We Speak No Treason
• 1973 – Jennifer Johnston – The Captains and the Kings
• 1975 – Sasha Moorsom – A Lavender Trip
• 1977 – Barbara Benson – The Underlings
• 1978 – Katharine Gordon – The Emerald Peacock
• 1979 – Martin Page – The Pilate Plot
• 1980 – Dawn Lowe-Watson – The Good Morrow
• 1981 – Anne Smith – The Magic Glass
• 1982 – Frances Vernon – Privileged Children
• 1983 – Katherine Moore – Summer at the Haven
• 1984 – Frederick R. Hyde-Chambers – Lama: A Novel of Tibet
• 1985 – Magda Sweetland – Eightsome Reel
• 1986 – Helen Harris – Playing Fields in Winter
• 1987 – Peter Benson – The Levels
• 1988 – Gilbert Adair – The Holy Innocents
• 1989 – Lindsey Davis – The Silver Pigs ^[3]
• 1990 – Alan Brownjohn – The Way You Tell Them^[4]
• 1991 – Zina Rohan – The Book of Wishes and Complaints ^[5]
• 1992 – David Park – The Healing ^[6]
• 1993 – Nadeem Aslam – Season of the Rainbirds ^[7]
• 1994 – Andrew Cowan – Pig
• 1995 – T. J. Armstrong – Walter and the Resurrection of G
• 1996 – Diran Adebayo – Some Kind of Black and Rhidian Brook – The Testimony of Taliesin Jones (shared)
• 1997 – Mick Jackson – The Underground Man
• 1998 – Jackie Kay – Trumpet
• 1999 – Ann Harries – Manly Pursuits
• 2000 – Brian Clarke – The Stream^[8]
• 2001 – Carl Tighe – Burning Worm^[9]
• 2002 – Ben Facini – The Water Breather
• 2003 – Dan Rhodes – Timoleon Vieta Come Home^[10]
• 2004 – Susan Fletcher – Eve Green^[11] and Neil Griffiths – Betrayal in Naples^[12] (shared)
• 2005 – Henry Shukman – Sandstorm^[13]
• 2006 – Nicola Monaghan – The Killing Jar ^[14]
• 2007 –
  Goodbye Lucille^[15]
• 2009 – Laura Beatty – Pollard^[16]
• 2010 – Anthony Quinn – The Rescue Man^[17]
• 2011 – Jonathan Kemp – London Triptych
• 2012 –
  Kevin Barry – City of Bohane^[18]
• 2013 – Ros Barber – The Marlowe Papers and I. J. Kay – Mountains of the Moon^[19]
• 2014 – Jack Wolf – The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones
• 2015 – Carys Bray – A Song for Issy Bradley
• 2016 – Benjamin Johncock – The Last Pilot
• 2017 – Rowan Hisayo Buchanan – Harmless Like You
• 2018 – Gail Honeyman – Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
• 2019 – Guy Gunaratne – In Our Mad and Furious City^[20]
• 2020 – Claire Adam – Golden Child^[21]
• 2021 – Ingrid Persaud – Love after Love
• 2022 – Tish Delaney – Before My Actual Heart Breaks
• 2023 – Ayanna Lloyd Banwo – When We Were Birds

References