James Tait Black Memorial Prize: Fiction

This is one of the 743 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
17008 The Secret City Hugh Walpole 1919 British English
17008 The Lost Girl D. H. Lawrence 1920 British English
4634 Memoirs Of A Midget Walter de la Mare 1921 British English
1759 Lady into Fox David Garnett 1922 British English
17008 Riceyman Steps Arnold Bennett 1923 British English
78 A Passage to India E. M. Forster 1924 British English
14901 The Informer Liam O'Flaherty 1925 Irish English
17008 Adam's Breed Radclyffe Hall 1926 British English
17008 Portrait Of Clare Francis Brett Young 1927 British English
14810 Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man Siegfried Sassoon 1928 British English
3034 The Good Companions J. B. Priestley 1929 British English
17008 Miss Mole E. H. Young 1930 British English
17008 Without My Cloak Kate O'Brien 1931 Irish English
17008 Boomerang Helen Simpson 2000 British English
3034 England, Their England A. G. Macdonell 1933 British English
452 I, Claudius Robert Graves 1934 British English
6237 Claudius The God Robert Graves 1935 British English
17008 The Root And The Flower L. H. Myers 1935 British English
3034 South Riding Winifred Holtby 1936 British English
17008 Highland River Neil M. Gunn 1937 Scottish English
17008 A Ship Of The Line C. S. Forester 1938 British English
17008 Flying Colours C. S. Forester 1938 British English
10868 After Many A Summer Dies The Swan Aldous Huxley 1939 British English
17008 The Voyage Charles Morgan 1940 British English
17008 A House Of Children Joyce Cary 1941 British English
365 Journey to the West Wu Cheng'en 1592 Chinese Chinese
17008 Tales From Bective Bridge Mary Lavin 1942 Irish English
17008 Young Tom Forrest Reid 1944 British English
17008 Travellers L. A. G. Strong 1950 British English
17008 Poor Man's Tapestry G. Oliver Onions 1946 British English
14890 Eustace and Hilda L. P. Hartley 1947 British English
1105 The Heart of the Matter Graham Greene 1948 British English
17008 The Far Cry Emma Smith 1949 British English
17008 Through The Valley Robert Henriques 1950 British English
17008 Father Goose W. C. Chapman-Mortimer 1899 British Unknown
2456 Men At Arms Evelyn Waugh 1952 British English
17008 Troy Chimneys Margaret Kennedy 1952 British English
17008 The New Men C. P. Snow 1954 British English
17008 The Masters In Sequence C. P. Snow 1951 British English
17008 Mother And Son Ivy Compton-Burnett 1955 British English
1377 The Towers Of Trebizond Rose Macauley 1956 British English
17008 At Lady Molly's Anthony Powell 1957 British English
17008 The Middle Age Of Mrs Eliot Angus Wilson 1958 British English
17008 The Devil's Advocate Morris West 1959 Australian English
14901 Imperial Caesar Rex Warner 1960 British English
17008 The Ha Ha Jennifer Dawson 1961 British English
17008 Act Of Destruction Ronald Hardy 1971 British English
17008 A Slanting Light Gerda Charles 1963 British English
17008 The Ice Saints Frank Tuohy 1974 British English
13656 The Mandelbaum Gate Muriel Spark 1965 British English
17008 Such Christine Brooke-Rose 1966 British English
10907 Langrishe, Go Down Aidan Higgins 1966 Irish English
17008 Jerusalem The Golden Margaret Drabble 1967 British English
17008 The Gasteropod Maggie Ross 1968 Unknown Unknown
2942 Eva Trout Elizabeth Bowen 1968 Irish English
17008 The Bird Of Paradise Lily Powell 1970 British Unknown
5907 A Guest Of Honour Nadine Gordimer 1970 South African English
1562 G. John Berger 1972 British English
1135 The Black Prince Iris Murdoch 1973 British English
10180 Monsieur, Or The Prince Of Darkness Lawrence Durrell 1974 British English
3484 The Great Victorian Collection Brian Moore 1975 Canadian English
17008 Doctor Copernicus John Banville 1976 Irish English
14760 The Honourable Schoolboy John le Carré 1977 British English
2391 Plumb Maurice Gee 1978 New Zealand English
17008 Darkness Visible William Golding 1979 British English
470 Waiting for the Barbarians J. M. Coetzee 1980 South African English
64 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
7562 The Mosquito Coast Paul Theroux 1981 American English
2507 On the Black Hill Bruce Chatwin 1982 British English
17008 Allegro Postillions Jonathan Keates 1983 British Unknown
1567 Empire of the Sun J. G. Ballard 1984 British English
627 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
17008 Winter Garden Robert Edric 1985 British English
17008 Persephone Jenny Joseph 1986 British Unknown
17008 The Golden Bird George Mackay Brown 1962 Scottish English
17008 A Season In The West Piers Paul Read 1988 British English
14901 A Disaffection James Kelman 1989 Scottish English
14901 Brazzaville Beach William Boyd 1990 British English
14901 Downriver Iain Sinclair 1991 British English
17008 Sacred Country Rose Tremain 1992 British English
14901 Crossing The River Caryl Phillips 1993 British English
14901 The Folding Star Alan Hollinghurst 1994 British English
4818 The Prestige Christopher Priest 1995 British English
13304 Last Orders Graham Swift 1996 British English
17008 Justine Alice Thompson 1996 British English
4537 Ingenious Pain Andrew Miller 1997 British English
6352 Master Georgie Beryl Bainbridge 1998 British English
17008 Renegade Or Halo2 Timothy Mo 1999 British Unknown
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
17008 Something Like A House Sid Smith 2001 British English
237 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
7035 Personality Andrew O'Hagan 2003 Scottish English
7187 Gb84 David Peace 2004 British English
6717 Saturday Ian McEwan 2005 British English
291 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006 American English
17008 Our Horses In Egypt Rosalind Belben 2007 British English
4878 The Secret Scripture Sebastian Barry 2008 Irish English
5981 The Children's Book A. S. Byatt 2009 British English
17008 The Lotus Eaters Tatjani Soli 2010 American English
17008 You And I Padgett Powell 2011 American English
17008 The Deadman’s Pedal Alan Warner 2012 Scottish English
10147 Harvest Jim Crace 2013 British English
17008 In The Light Of What We Know Zia Haider Rahman 2014 British English
17008 You Don’t Have To Live Like This Benjamin Markovits 2015 American English
5003 The Lesser Bohemians Eimear McBride 2016 Irish English
17008 Attrib. And Other Stories Eley Williams 2017 British English
10424 Crudo Olivia Laing 2018 British English
6936 Ducks, Newburyport Lucy Ellmann 2019 British English
17008 Lote Shola von Reinhold 2020 British English
17008 A Shock Keith Ridgway 2021 Irish English
2132 Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver 2022 American English