The Guardian Fiction Prize was a literary award sponsored by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' newspaper. Founded in 1965, it recognized one fiction book per year written by a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

or Commonwealth writer and published in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The award ran for 33 years before being terminated. In 1999, the ''Guardian'' replaced the Fiction Prize with the ''Guardian'' First Book Award, for début works of both fiction and non-fiction, which was discontinued in 2016, with the 2015 awards being the last.

Guardian Fiction Prize winners

*1965: Clive Barry, '' Crumb Borne'' *1966: Archie Hind, ''The Dear Green Place'' *1967:

Eva Figes Eva Figes (; 15 April 1932 – 28 August 2012) was an English author and feminist. Figes wrote novels, literary criticism, studies of feminism, and vivid memoirs relating to her Berlin childhood and later experiences as a Jewish refugee from H ...

, ''Winter Journey'' *1968:

P. J. Kavanagh P. J. Kavanagh FRSL (6 January 1931 – 26 August 2015) was an English poet, lecturer, actor, broadcaster and columnist. His father was the ''ITMA'' scriptwriter Ted Kavanagh. Life Patrick Joseph Kavanagh worked as a Butlin's Redcoat, t ...

, ''A Song and a Dance'' *1969:

Maurice Leitch Maurice Leitch MBE (born 5 July 1933) is an author born in Northern Ireland. Leitch's work includes novels, short stories, dramas, screenplays and radio and television documentaries. His first novel was ''The Liberty Lad'', published in 1965. H ...

, ''Poor Lazarus'' *1970: Margaret Blount, ''When Did You Last See your Father?'' *1971:

Thomas Kilroy Thomas F. Kilroy (born 23 September 1934) is an Irish playwright and novelist. He was born in Green Street, Callan, County Kilkenny. He attended St Kieran's College and played hurling for the school team, captaining the senior team in 1952. He ...

, ''The Big Chapel'' *1972:

John Berger John Peter Berger (; 5 November 1926 – 2 January 2017) was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel '' G.'' won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism '' Ways of Seeing'', written as an accompaniment to the ...

, '' G'' *1973:

Peter Redgrove Peter William Redgrove (2 January 1932 – 16 June 2003) was a British poet, who also wrote prose, novels and plays with his second wife Penelope Shuttle. Life and career Redgrove was born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. He was educated at Ta ...

, ''In the Country of the Skin'' *1974: Beryl Bainbridge, ''

The Bottle Factory Outing ''The Bottle Factory Outing'' is a 1974 novel by English writer Beryl Bainbridge. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize that year, won the Guardian Fiction Prize and is regarded as one of her best. It is also listed as one of the 100 greatest ...

'' *1975: Sylvia Clayton, ''Friends and Romans'' *1976: Robert Nye, ''Falstaff'' *1977:

Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worke ...

, ''

The Condition of Muzak ''The Condition of Muzak'' is a novel by British fantasy and science fiction writer Michael Moorcock, published by Allison & Busby in 1977. It is the final novel of his long-running Jerry Cornelius series. It was first published in its revised ...

'' *1978:

Roy Heath Roy Aubrey Kelvin Heath (13 August 1926 – 14 May 2008) was a Guyana, Guyanese writer who settled in the UK, where he lived for five decades, working as a schoolteacher as well as writing. His 1978 novel ''The Murderer (Roy Heath novel), The M ...

, '' The Murderer'' *1979:

Neil Jordan Neil Patrick Jordan (born 25 February 1950) is an Irish film director, screenwriter, novelist and short-story writer. His first book, ''Night in Tunisia (short story collection), Night in Tunisia'', won a Somerset Maugham Award and the Guardian ...

, '' Night in Tunisia'' and Dambudzo Marechera, '' The House of Hunger'' *1980: J. L. Carr, '' A Month in the Country'' *1981:

John Banville William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Proust, via Nabokov", Banville himself maintains that W. B. Yeats and Henry ...

, ''

Kepler Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws o ...

'' *1982: Glyn Hughes, ''Where I Used to Play on the Green'' *1983: Graham Swift, ''

Waterland Waterland () is a municipality in the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland. It is situated north of Amsterdam, on the western shore of the Markermeer. It is well-known for comprising the touristy towns of Broek in Waterland and M ...

'' *1984:

J. G. Ballard James Graham Ballard (15 November 193019 April 2009) was an English novelist, short story writer, satirist, and essayist known for provocative works of fiction which explored the relations between human psychology, technology, sex, and mass med ...

, ''

Empire of the Sun ''Empire of the Sun'' is a 1984 novel by English writer J. G. Ballard; it was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Like Ballard's earlier short story "The Dead Time" (published in the anthology ...

'' *1985:

Peter Ackroyd Peter Ackroyd (born 5 October 1949) is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a specialist interest in the history and culture of London. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, William ...

, '' Hawksmoor'' *1986:

Jim Crace James Crace (born 1 March 1946) is an English novelist, playwright and short story writer. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1999, Crace was born in Hertfordshire and has lectured at the University of Texas at Austin. His n ...

, ''

Continent A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas t ...

'' *1987: Peter Benson, ''The Levels'' *1988: Lucy Ellmann, ''Sweet Desserts'' *1989: Carol Lake, ''Rosehill: Portrait from a Midlands City'' *1990:

Pauline Melville Pauline Melville FRSL (born 1948) is an English/Guyanese-born writer and former actor of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry, who is currently based in London, England. Among awards she has received for her writing – which encompasses short ...

, ''Shape-Shifter'' *1991:

Alan Judd Alan Judd (born 1946) is a pseudonym used by Alan Edwin Petty. Born in 1946, he is a former soldier and diplomat who now works as a security analyst and writer in the United Kingdom. He writes both books and articles, regularly contributing to a ...

, ''

The Devil's Own Work ''The Devil's Own Work'' is a 1991 novella by Alan Judd which won the Guardian Fiction Award. A modern version of the Faust legend, it was inspired by a dinner with Graham Greene. and tells of a pact an author makes with the devil as told by his ...

'' *1992:

Alasdair Gray Alasdair James Gray (28 December 1934 – 29 December 2019) was a Scottish writer and artist. His first novel, ''Lanark: A Life in Four Books, Lanark'' (1981), is seen as a landmark of Scottish fiction. He published novels, short stories, plays ...

, '' Poor Things'' *1993:

Pat Barker Patricia Mary W. Barker, (née Drake; born 8 May 1943) is an English writer and novelist. She has won many awards for her fiction, which centres on themes of memory, trauma, survival and recovery. Her work is described as direct, blunt and pl ...

, '' The Eye in the Door'' *1994: Candia McWilliam, ''

Debatable Land ''Debatable Land'' is a Guardian First Book Award, Guardian Fiction Prize-winning novel in Scotland, novel by Scottish author Candia McWilliam. The novel seeks to raise questions about the direction in which United Kingdom, Britain (and more s ...

'' *1995:

James Buchan James Buchan (born 11 June 1954) is a Scottish novelist and historian. Biography Buchan is a son of the late William Buchan, 3rd Baron Tweedsmuir, and grandson of John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, the Scottish novelist and diplomat. He has se ...

, ''Heart's Journey in Winter'' *1996:

Seamus Deane Seamus Francis Deane (9 February 194012 May 2021) was an Irish poet, novelist, critic, and intellectual historian. He was noted for his debut novel, ''Reading in the Dark'', which won several literary awards and was nominated for the Booker Pri ...

, '' Reading in the Dark'' *1997:

Anne Michaels Anne Michaels (born 15 April 1958) is a Canadian poet and novelist whose work has been translated and published in over 45 countries. Her books have garnered dozens of international awards including the Orange Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, t ...

, '' Fugitive Pieces'' *1998: Jackie Kay, ''

Trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

References

{{Guardian Fiction Prize Commonwealth literary awards Literary awards by magazines and newspapers British fiction awards Awards established in 1965 1965 establishments in the United Kingdom 1998 disestablishments in the United Kingdom The Guardian awards