UA CLIENTS SHORTLISTED FOR 2015 WALTER SCOTT PRIZE

The shortlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2015 has been announced. It consists of only seven titles, 'reflecting the astonishing breadth and diversity of books entered in a bumper year for the Prize', and includes work by Helen Dunmore and Hermione Eyre. 

THE LIE by Helen Dunmore

The horror of the trenches haunts a soldier’s return to his Cornish village in this tender tale about the fallout from war.
The Judges said: “The visceral nature of war hits you from the first page, as well as the extreme difficulties of life after the ending of war.  Helen Dunmore brings new insight into this much-visited historical subject, and the novel is also a profound and tender investigation of mental illness.”

VIPER WINE by Hermione Eyre
Viper Wine tells the story of the explorer and diplomat Sir Kenelm Digby and his wife Venetia, an English society beauty searching for the secret of eternal youth.
The Judges said: “Viper Wine deals with the obsessive vanity of the seventeenth century court, and Hermione Eyre tells this story brilliantly through the eyes of Venetia the once ravishing society IT girl, and her husband Sir Kenelm Digby.  Eyre’s prose is as sensuous as her subject, while her enthusiasm and verve are infectious.  Uniquely, twenty-first century references run through this book, reflecting the wonders of the age and the obvious parallels with today’s society.”

 The winner will be announced on Saturday 13th June 2015 at the awards ceremony, which is a public event as part of the Brewin Dolphin Borders Book Festival in Melrose, near Walter Scott’s home Abbotsford in the Scottish Borders.

More information about the shortlist can be found here: http://www.bordersbookfestival.org/walter-scott-prize/item/366-walter-scott-prize-shortlist-announced