Simon Mawer's Tightrope wins Walter Scott prize for historical fiction

Drama of concentration camp survivor, set in 1950s London, praised by judges as ‘a spy story in the grand tradition’

Despite declaring that he doesn’t “consider [himself] a historical novelist at all”, Simon Mawer has won the £25,000 Walter Scott prize for historical fiction.

Mawer won the award for his novel Tightrope, which continues the story of Marian Sutro, who has survived the Ravensbrück concentration camp and is now living in 1950s London. The Walter Scott prize, set up by the author’s distant relatives the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, defines a historical novel as one in which the majority of events take place at least 60 years ago, as per Scott’s subtitle for his novel Waverley: or ’tis Sixty Years Since.

Continue reading...