James Tait Black Memorial Prize: Fiction

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

James Tait Black Memorial Prize, 111 Books

The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language.
The winners are chosen by the Professor of English Literature at the university, who is assisted by postgraduate students in the shortlisting phase, a structure which is seen to lend the prizes a considerable gravitas.

For the book prizes works of fiction and biographies must be written in English. The nationality of the author does not matter, but submissions must be first published (or co-published) in Britain during the calendar year of the award. Any given author can only win each prize once. However, he or she can win both prizes at the same time.

This list is a yearly book award, and was added to this site over 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
17152 The Secret City Hugh Walpole 1919 British English
17152 The Lost Girl D. H. Lawrence 1920 British English
4642 Memoirs Of A Midget Walter de la Mare 1921 British English
1762 Lady into Fox David Garnett 1922 British English
17152 Riceyman Steps Arnold Bennett 1923 British English
78 A Passage to India E. M. Forster 1924 British English
14985 The Informer Liam O'Flaherty 1925 Irish English
17152 Adam's Breed Radclyffe Hall 1926 British English
17152 Portrait Of Clare Francis Brett Young 1927 British English
14898 Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man Siegfried Sassoon 1928 British English
3042 The Good Companions J. B. Priestley 1929 British English
17152 Miss Mole E. H. Young 1930 British English
17152 Without My Cloak Kate O'Brien 1931 Irish English
17152 Boomerang Helen Simpson 2000 British English
3042 England, Their England A. G. Macdonell 1933 British English
453 I, Claudius Robert Graves 1934 British English
6247 Claudius The God Robert Graves 1935 British English
17152 The Root And The Flower L. H. Myers 1935 British English
3042 South Riding Winifred Holtby 1936 British English
17152 Highland River Neil M. Gunn 1937 Scottish English
17152 A Ship Of The Line C. S. Forester 1938 British English
17152 Flying Colours C. S. Forester 1938 British English
10898 After Many A Summer Dies The Swan Aldous Huxley 1939 British English
17152 The Voyage Charles Morgan 1940 British English
17152 A House Of Children Joyce Cary 1941 British English
367 Journey to the West Wu Cheng'en 1592 Chinese Chinese
17152 Tales From Bective Bridge Mary Lavin 1942 Irish English
17152 Young Tom Forrest Reid 1944 British English
17152 Travellers L. A. G. Strong 1950 British English
17152 Poor Man's Tapestry G. Oliver Onions 1946 British English
14974 Eustace and Hilda L. P. Hartley 1947 British English
1106 The Heart of the Matter Graham Greene 1948 British English
17152 The Far Cry Emma Smith 1949 British English
17152 Through The Valley Robert Henriques 1950 British English
17152 Father Goose W. C. Chapman-Mortimer 1899 British Unknown
2461 Men At Arms Evelyn Waugh 1952 British English
17152 Troy Chimneys Margaret Kennedy 1952 British English
17152 The New Men C. P. Snow 1954 British English
17152 The Masters In Sequence C. P. Snow 1951 British English
17152 Mother And Son Ivy Compton-Burnett 1955 British English
1378 The Towers Of Trebizond Rose Macauley 1956 British English
17152 At Lady Molly's Anthony Powell 1957 British English
17152 The Middle Age Of Mrs Eliot Angus Wilson 1958 British English
17152 The Devil's Advocate Morris West 1959 Australian English
14985 Imperial Caesar Rex Warner 1960 British English
17152 The Ha Ha Jennifer Dawson 1961 British English
17152 Act Of Destruction Ronald Hardy 1971 British English
17152 A Slanting Light Gerda Charles 1963 British English
17152 The Ice Saints Frank Tuohy 1974 British English
13703 The Mandelbaum Gate Muriel Spark 1965 British English
17152 Such Christine Brooke-Rose 1966 British English
10937 Langrishe, Go Down Aidan Higgins 1966 Irish English
17152 Jerusalem The Golden Margaret Drabble 1967 British English
17152 The Gasteropod Maggie Ross 1968 Unknown Unknown
2949 Eva Trout Elizabeth Bowen 1968 Irish English
17152 The Bird Of Paradise Lily Powell 1970 British Unknown
5917 A Guest Of Honour Nadine Gordimer 1970 South African English
1564 G. John Berger 1972 British English
1136 The Black Prince Iris Murdoch 1973 British English
10201 Monsieur, Or The Prince Of Darkness Lawrence Durrell 1974 British English
3487 The Great Victorian Collection Brian Moore 1975 Canadian English
17152 Doctor Copernicus John Banville 1976 Irish English
7711 The Honourable Schoolboy John le Carré 1977 British English
2398 Plumb Maurice Gee 1978 New Zealand English
17152 Darkness Visible William Golding 1979 British English
471 Waiting for the Barbarians J. M. Coetzee 1980 South African English
64 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
7579 The Mosquito Coast Paul Theroux 1981 American English
2512 On the Black Hill Bruce Chatwin 1982 British English
17152 Allegro Postillions Jonathan Keates 1983 British Unknown
1569 Empire of the Sun J. G. Ballard 1984 British English
628 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
17152 Winter Garden Robert Edric 1985 British English
17152 Persephone Jenny Joseph 1986 British Unknown
17152 The Golden Bird George Mackay Brown 1962 Scottish English
17152 A Season In The West Piers Paul Read 1988 British English
14985 A Disaffection James Kelman 1989 Scottish English
14985 Brazzaville Beach William Boyd 1990 British English
14985 Downriver Iain Sinclair 1991 British English
17152 Sacred Country Rose Tremain 1992 British English
14985 Crossing The River Caryl Phillips 1993 British English
14985 The Folding Star Alan Hollinghurst 1994 British English
4827 The Prestige Christopher Priest 1995 British English
13338 Last Orders Graham Swift 1996 British English
17152 Justine Alice Thompson 1996 British English
4543 Ingenious Pain Andrew Miller 1997 British English
6362 Master Georgie Beryl Bainbridge 1998 British English
17152 Renegade Or Halo2 Timothy Mo 1999 British Unknown
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
17152 Something Like A House Sid Smith 2001 British English
237 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
7048 Personality Andrew O'Hagan 2003 Scottish English
7203 Gb84 David Peace 2004 British English
6730 Saturday Ian McEwan 2005 British English
290 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006 American English
17152 Our Horses In Egypt Rosalind Belben 2007 British English
4887 The Secret Scripture Sebastian Barry 2008 Irish English
5992 The Children's Book A. S. Byatt 2009 British English
17152 The Lotus Eaters Tatjani Soli 2010 American English
17152 You And I Padgett Powell 2011 American English
17152 The Deadman’s Pedal Alan Warner 2012 Scottish English
10165 Harvest Jim Crace 2013 British English
17152 In The Light Of What We Know Zia Haider Rahman 2014 British English
17152 You Don’t Have To Live Like This Benjamin Markovits 2015 American English
5013 The Lesser Bohemians Eimear McBride 2016 Irish English
17152 Attrib. And Other Stories Eley Williams 2017 British English
10451 Crudo Olivia Laing 2018 British English
6947 Ducks, Newburyport Lucy Ellmann 2019 British English
17152 Lote Shola von Reinhold 2020 British English
17152 A Shock Keith Ridgway 2021 Irish English
2107 Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver 2022 American English