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Since 1964, multiple winners have usually been chosen in the same year. In 1975, the award was not given. The Award has twice been won by the son of a previous winner: Kingsley Amis (winner in 1955) was the father of Martin Amis ( 1974), and Nigel Kneale ( 1950) the father of Matthew Kneale ( 1988).
| Year | Author | Book |
|---|---|---|
| 1947 | A. L. Barker | Innocents |
| 1948 | P. H. Newby | Journey to the Interior |
| 1949 | Hamish Henderson | Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica |
| 1950 | Nigel Kneale | Tomato Cain & Other Stories |
| 1951 | Roland Camberton | Scamp |
| 1952 | Francis King | The Dividing Stream |
| 1953 | Emyr Humphreys | Hear and Forgive |
| 1954 | Doris LessingDoris Lessing (born October 22, 1919), is a British writer, born Doris May Taylor in Kermanshah, Persia ( Iran). Her family moved to the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe) in 1925, to live a rough life farming maize. Unfortunately, the | Five Short Novels |
| 1955 | Kingsley Amis | Lucky Jim |
| 1956 | Elizabeth JenningsElizabeth Jennings (born 1926) is an English poet, noted for her clarity of style and simplicity of literary approach. Her Roman Catholicism colours much of her work. She has always made it clear that, whilst her life, which includes a spell of severe men | A Way of Looking |
| 1957 | George Lamming | In the Castle of My Skin |
| 1958 | John WainJohn Wain (born John Barrington Wain March 14, 1925 May 24, 1994) was a poet, critic and Professor of Poetry, associated with the literary group The Movement. For most of his life, John Wain worked as a freelance journalist and author, writing and reviewi | Preliminary Essays |
| 1959 | Thom GunnThom Gunn ( August 29 1929 April 25 2004) was a British poet. He was born Thomson William Gunn in Gravesend, Kent. He read English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduated in 1953, and published his first collection of verse, Fighting Terms the | A Sense Of Movement |
| 1960 | Ted HughesEdward James Hughes ( August 17, 1930 in Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire October 28, 1998) was an English poet. Hughes studied English, anthropology and archaeology at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he met Sylvia Plath. They married on June 16, 1956, sepa | The Hawk in the Rain |
| 1961 | V. S. NaipaulSir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (born August 17, 1932), better known as V. Naipaul is a British novelist of Hindu heritage and East Indian ethnicity from Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, which was then a British colony. He was awarded th | Miguel Street |
| 1962 | Hugh Thomas | The Spanish Civil War |
| 1963 | David Storey | Flight Into Camden |
| 1964 | Dan Jacobson | Time of Arrival |
| John Le Carré | The Spy Who Came In From the Cold | |
| 1965 | Peter Everett | Negatives |
| 1966 | Michael Frayn | The Tin Men |
| Julian Mitchell | The White Father | |
| 1967 | B. S. Johnson | Trawl |
| Andrew Sinclair | The Better Half | |
| 1968 | Paul Bailey | At The Jerusalem |
| Seamus Heaney | Death of a Naturalist | |
| 1969 | Angela Carter | Several Perceptions |
| 1970 | Jane Gaskell | A Sweet Sweet Summer |
| Piers Paul Read | Monk Dawson | |
| 1971 | Susan Hill | I'm the King of the Castle |
| Richard Barber | The Knight and Chivalry | |
| Michael Hastings | Tussy Is Me | |
| 1972 | Douglas Dunn | Terry Street |
| Gillian Tindall | Fly Away Home | |
| 1973 | Peter Prince | Play Things |
| Paul Strathern | A Season in Abyssinia | |
| Jonathan Street | Prudence Dictates | |
| 1974 | Martin Amis | The Rachel Papers |
| 1975 | No Award | No Award |
| 1976 | Dominic Cooper | The Dead of Winter |
| Ian McEwan | First Love, Last Rites | |
| 1977 | Richard Holmes | Shelley: The Pursuit |
| 1978 | Tom Paulin | A State of Justice |
| Nigel Williams | My Life Closed Twice | |
| 1979 | Helen Hodgman | Jack & Jill |
| Sara Maitland | Daughter of Jerusalem | |
| 1980 | Max Hastings | Bomber Command |
| Christopher Reid | Arcadia | |
| Humphrey Carpenter | The Inklings | |
| 1981 | Julian Barnes | Metroland |
| Clive Sinclair | Hearts of Gold | |
| A. N. Wilson | The Healing Art | |
| 1982 | William Boyd | A Good Man In Africa |
| Adam MarsJones | Lantern Lecture | |
| 1983 | Lisa St Aubin de Teran | Keepers of the House |
| 1984 | Peter Ackroyd | The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde |
| Timothy Garton Ash | The Polish Revolution: Solidarity | |
| Sean O'Brien | The Indoor Park | |
| 1985 | Blake Morrison | Dark Glasses |
| Jeremy Reed | By the Fisheries | |
| Jane Rogers | Her Living Image | |
| 1986 | Patricia Ferguson | Family Myths and Legends |
| Adam Nicolson | Frontiers | |
| Tim Parks | Tongues of Flame | |
| 1987 | Stephen Gregory | The Cormorant |
| Janni Howker | Isaac Campion | |
| Andrew Motion | The Lamberts | |
| 1988 | Jimmy Burns | The Land That Lost Its Heroes |
| Carol Ann Duffy | Selling Manhattan | |
| Matthew Kneale | Whore Banquets | |
| 1989 | Rupert Christiansen | Romantic Affinities |
| Alan Hollingshurst | The Swimming Pool Library | |
| Deirdre Madden | The Birds of the Innocent Wood | |
| 1990 | Mark Hudson | Our Grandmothers' Drums |
| Sam North | The Automatic Man | |
| Nicholas Shakespeare | The Vision of Elena Silves | |
| 1991 | Peter Benson | The Other Occupant |
| Lesley Glaister | Honour Thy Father | |
| Helen Simpson | Four Bare Legs in a Bed | |
| 1992 | Geoff Dyer | But Beautiful |
| Lawrence Norfolk | Lempriere's Dictionary | |
| Gerard Woodward | Householder | |
| 1993 | Dea Birkett | Jella |
| Duncan McLean | Bucket of Tongues | |
| Glyn Maxwell | Out of the Rain | |
| 1994 | Jackie Kay | Other Lovers |
| A. L. Kennedy | Looking For the Possible Dance | |
| Philip Marsden | Crossing Place | |
| 1995 | Patrick French | Younghusband |
| Simon Garfield | The End of Innocence | |
| Kathleen Jamie | The Queen of Sheba | |
| Laura Thompson | The Dogs | |
| 1996 | Katherine Pierpoint | Truffle Beds |
| Alan Warner | Morvern Callar | |
| 1997 | Rhidian Brook | The Testimony of Taliesin Jones |
| Kate Clanchy | Slattern | |
| Philip Hensher | Kitchen Venom | |
| Francis Spufford | I May Be Some Time | |
| 1998 | Rachel Cusk | The Country Life |
| Jonathan Rendall | This Bloody Mary Is the Last Thing I Own | |
| Kate Summerscale | The Queen of Whale Cay | |
| Robert Twigger | Angry White Pyjamas | |
| 1999 | Andrea Ashworth | Once in a House on Fire |
| Paul Farley | The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You | |
| Giles Foden | The Last King of Scotland | |
| Jonathan Freedland | Bring Home the Revolution | |
| 2000 | Bella Bathurst | The Lighthouse Stevensons |
| Sarah Waters | Affinity | |
| 2001 | Edward Platt | Leadville—A Biography of the A40 |
| Ben Rice | Pobby And Dingan | |
| 2002 | Charlotte Hobson | Black Earth City |
| Marcel Theroux | The Paperchase | |
| 2003 | William Fiennes | The Snow Geese |
| Hari Kunzru | The Impressionist | |
| Jon McGregor | If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things | |
| 2004 | Charlotte Mendelson | Daughters of Jerusalem |
| Mark Blayney | Two Kinds of Silence | |
| Robert Macfarlane | Mountains of the Mind |