The Cheltenham Prize is awarded at the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

Cheltenham Literature Festival ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' Cheltenham Literature Festival, a large-scale international festival of literature held every year in October in the English spa town of Cheltenham, and part of Cheltenham Festivals: also responsible for th ...

to the author of any book published in the relevant year which "has received less acclaim than it deserved".

Past winners

*1979:

Angela Carter Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picar ...

for ''

The Bloody Chamber ''The Bloody Chamber'' (or ''The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories'') is a collection of short stories by English writer Angela Carter. It was first published in the United Kingdom in 1979 by Gollancz and won the Cheltenham Festival Literary ...

'' *1980: Thomas Pakenham for ''The Boer War'' *1981:

D. M. Thomas Donald Michael Thomas (25 January 1935 – 26 March 2023) was a British poet, translator, novelist, editor, biographer and playwright. His work has been translated into 30 languages. Working primarily as a poet throughout the 1960s and 1970s, ...

for ''

The White Hotel ''The White Hotel'' is a novel written by the British ( Cornish) poet, translator and novelist D. M. Thomas. It was first published in January 1981 by Gollancz in the United Kingdom and in March 1981 by The Viking Press in the United States. ...

'' *1982:

Simon Gray Simon James Holliday Gray (21 October 1936 – 7 August 2008) was an English playwright and memoirist who also had a career as a Academia, university lecturer in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, for 20 years. While teach ...

for ''

Quartermaine's Terms ''Quartermaine's Terms'' is a play by Simon Gray which won The Cheltenham Prize in 1982. Plot The play takes place over a period of two years in the 1960s in the staffroom at a Cambridge school for teaching English to foreigners. It deals wi ...

'' *1983:

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

for '' Unlikely Stories, Mostly'' *1984:

Beatrix Campbell Mary Lorimer Beatrix Campbell (''née'' Barnes; born 3 February 1947) is an English writer and activist who has written for a number of publications since the early 1970s. Her books include ''Wigan Pier Revisited'' (1984), ''Goliath: Britain's ...

for ''Wigan Pier Revisited'' *1985: Frank McLynn for ''The Jacobite Army of England: 1745, The Final Campaign'' *1986: Frank McGuiness for ''

Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme ''Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme'' is a 1985 play by Frank McGuinness. Plot synopsis The play centres on the experiences of eight unionist Ulstermen who volunteer to serve in the 36th (Ulster) Division at the beginning of ...

'' *1987:

James Kelman James Kelman (born 9 June 1946) is a Scottish novelist, short story writer, playwright and essayist. His fiction and short stories feature accounts of internal mental processes of usually, but not exclusively, working class narrators and their ...

for ''Greyhound for Breakfast'' *1988:

Peter Robinson Peter Robinson may refer to: Entertainment * Peter Robinson (sideshow artist) (1873–1947), American actor and sideshow performer, known for his appearance in film ''Freaks'' (1932) * J. Peter Robinson (born 1945), British musician and film score ...

for ''The Other Life'' *1989:

Medbh McGuckian Medbh McGuckian (born as Maeve McCaughan on 12 August 1950) is a poet from Northern Ireland. Biography She was born the third of six children as Maeve McCaughan to Hugh and Margaret McCaughan in North Belfast. Her father was a school headmaste ...

for ''On Ballycastle Beach'' *1990:

Hilary Mantel Dame Hilary Mary Mantel ( ; born Thompson; 6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022) was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, ''Every Day Is Mother's Day'', was releas ...

for '' Fludd'' *1991:

Marius Kociejowski Marius Kociejowski (born 1949) is a Canadian-born poet, essayist and travel writer. Kociejowski was born in 1949 in Bishop's Mills, Ontario, to a Polish father and an English mother. In 1973, he left Canada and later settled in London. His first ...

for ''Coast'' *1993:

R. S. Thomas Ronald Stuart Thomas (29 March 1913 – 25 September 2000), published as R. S. Thomas, was a Welsh poet and Anglican priest noted for nationalism, spirituality and dislike of the anglicisation of Wales. John Betjeman, introducing ''Song at the ...

for ''Mass for Hard Times'' *1994:

Lyndall Gordon Lyndall Gordon (born 4 November 1941) is a British-based biographical and former academic writer, known for her literary biographies. She is a senior research fellow at St Hilda's College, Oxford. Life Born in Cape Town, she had her undergradua ...

for ''Charlotte Brontë: A Passionate Life'' *1995:

Kazuo Ishiguro is a Japanese-born English novelist, screenwriter, musician, and short-story writer. He is one of the most critically acclaimed contemporary fiction authors writing in English, having been awarded several major literary prizes, including the 2 ...

for ''

The Unconsoled ''The Unconsoled'' is a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, first published in 1995 by Faber and Faber, and winner of the Cheltenham Prize that year. Summary Ryder, an English pianist, arrives by invitation to an unspecified European city. At his hotel, ...

References

*Awards up to 1988: ''Prizewinning Literature: UK Literary Award Winners'' by Anne Strachan, publ. 1989 by Library Association Publishing Ltd English literary awards Awards established in 1979 1979 establishments in England British fiction awards {{England-stub