All British book prize shortlist features a novel that is 'impossible to forget'

All British book prize shortlist features a novel that is 'impossible to forget'For the first time in history, the Abbotsford Trust has named an all British shortlist for the Walter Scott Prize. Finalists include a moving tribute and a novel impossible to forget.NewsAimée Walsh Columnist and U35 Deputy Editor11:04, 17 Apr 2026View 2 ImagesHistory-making all British author shortlist for the Walter Scott PrizeIn a historic first for the prestigious Walter Scott literary prize, every book named on the 2026 shortlist is by a British author.‌The announcement was made on 16 April from Abbotsford, the ancestral home of Sir Walter Scott, via a video narrated by the veteran broadcaster James Naughtie. Over the award's seventeen-year history, the shortlist has never before featured an exclusively British line-up.‌The five finalists competing for the title are Jo Harkin, Alice Jolly, Graeme Macrae Burnet, Rachel Seiffert, and Benjamin Wood. This year’s selection traverses a vast emotional and historical landscape, from the "bawdy" coming-of-age of a medieval pretender to the "unflinching historical realism" of 1930s Vienna.‌View 2 ImagesThe Matchbox Girl by Alice JollyREAD MORE: Best paperbacks to read now including a 'cult phenomenon' everybody is readingREAD MORE: The Radio 2 Book Club Award 2026 shortlist in full as Sara Cox names the eight finalistsJo Harkin’s The Pretender reimagines the life of Lambert Simnel, the boy who would be king. The judges described the work as a "rich, brilliant, fresh, bawdy novel" that follows its protagonist from farm boy to usurper, kitchen boy, and eventually a "vengeful lothario," noting that it is "both convincing and very very funny."In contrast, Alice Jolly’s The Matchbox Girl offers a "moving tribute to a lost generation of children under Nazi rule." Centred on a young girl in a 1930s Austrian hospital, the judges praised the novel as a "sharp exa...