The W. H. Heinemann Award is an award established by

William Heinemann William Henry Heinemann (18 May 1863 – 5 October 1920) was an English publisher of Jewish descent and the founder of the Heinemann publishing house in London. Early life On 18 May 1863, Heinemann was born in Surbiton, Surrey, England. Heine ...

who bequeathed funds to the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

to establish a literary prize, given from 1945 to 2003.Directory of Grants in the Humanities The Heinemann Award is given primarily to reward those classes of literature which are less remunerative; namely, poetry, criticism, biography,

Awards list

*1945 ''A Prospect of Flowers'', botanical reminiscences by

Andrew Young Andrew Jackson Young Jr. (born March 12, 1932) is an American politician, diplomat, and activist. Beginning his career as a pastor, Young was an early leader in the civil rights movement, serving as executive director of the Southern Christian L ...

, poet and vicar of Stonegate in Sussex *1946 ''The Garden'' by

Vita Sackville-West Victoria Mary, Lady Nicolson, CH (née Sackville-West; 9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962), usually known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author and garden designer. Sackville-West was a successful novelist, poet and journalist, as wel ...

*1947 ''Letters to Malaya'' by Martyn Skinner *1948 ''Selected Poems'' by

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...

*1951 ''

Gormenghast Gormenghast may refer to: * ''Gormenghast'' (series), a trilogy of novels by Mervyn Peake ** ''Gormenghast'' (novel), second in the series * ''Gormenghast'' (opera), an opera based on the books * ''Gormenghast'' (TV serial), a BBC adaptatio ...

'' and ''The Glassblowers'' by

Mervyn Peake Mervyn Laurence Peake (9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was an English writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the '' Gormenghast'' books. The four works were part of what Peake conceived ...

*1952 '' The Cruel Sea'' by

Nicholas Monsarrat Lieutenant Commander Nicholas John Turney Monsarrat FRSL RNVR (22 March 19108 August 1979) was a British novelist known for his sea stories, particularly '' The Cruel Sea'' (1951) and ''Three Corvettes'' (1942–45), but perhaps known best i ...

*1953

Edwin Muir Edwin Muir CBE (15 May 1887 – 3 January 1959) was a Scottish poet, novelist and translator. Born on a farm in Deerness, a parish of Orkney, Scotland, he is remembered for his deeply felt and vivid poetry written in plain language and wit ...

*1954 ''The Ermine: poems, 1942–1952'' by

Ruth Pitter Emma Thomas "Ruth" Pitter, Order of the British Empire, CBE, Royal Society of Literature, FRSL (7 November 1897 – 29 February 1992) was a British poet. She was the first woman to receive the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1955, and was appoi ...

(joint winner) *1954 ''

The Go-Between ''The Go-Between'' is a novel by L. P. Hartley published in 1953. His best-known work, it has been adapted several times for stage and screen. The book gives a critical view of society at the end of the Victorian era through the eyes of a naïv ...

'' by

L.P. Hartley Leslie Poles Hartley (30 December 1895 – 13 December 1972) was a British novelist and short story writer. Although his first fiction was published in 1924, his career was slow to take off. His best-known novels are the '' Eustace and Hilda'' ...

(joint winner) *1955 ''Song at the Year's Turning'' by

R. S. Thomas Ronald Stuart Thomas (29 March 1913 – 25 September 2000), published as R. S. Thomas, was a Welsh poet and Anglican priest ( Church of Wales) noted for nationalism, spirituality and dislike of the anglicisation of Wales. John Betjeman, introduc ...

*1956 ''Roman Mornings'' by

James Lees-Milne (George) James Henry Lees-Milne (6 August 1908 – 28 December 1997) was an English writer and expert on country houses, who worked for the National Trust from 1936 to 1973. He was an architectural historian, novelist and biographer. His extensi ...

*1958 ''The Chequer'd Shade'' by

John Press John Bryant Press (11 January 1920 in Norwich – 26 February 2007 in Frome) was a poet, anthologist and critic who worked for the British Council for much of his life. Life The only child of Edward Press, who worked at Colman's in Norwich, John ...

*1959 '' The Devil's Advocate'' by

Morris West Morris Langlo West (26 April 19169 October 1999) was an Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels '' The Devil's Advocate'' (1959), ''The Shoes of the Fisherman'' (1963) and ''The Clowns of God'' (1981). His books were publ ...

*1960 ''Venice'' by

Jan Morris (Catharine) Jan MorrisJan Morris, Paul Clements, University of Wales Press, 2008, p. 7 (born James Humphry Morris; 2 October 192620 November 2020) was a Welsh historian, author and travel writer. She was known particularly for the ''Pax Brita ...

*1961 ''The Masks of Love'' by

Vernon Scannell Vernon Scannell (23 January 1922 – 16 November 2007) was a British poet and author. He was at one time a professional boxer, and wrote novels about the sport. Personal life Vernon Scannell, whose birth name was John Vernon Bain, was born in ...

*1962 ''Curmantle'' by

Christopher Fry Christopher Fry (18 December 1907 – 30 June 2005) was an English poet and playwright. He is best known for his verse dramas, especially ''The Lady's Not for Burning'', which made him a major force in theatre in the 1940s and 1950s. Biograph ...

*1962 ''

The Destruction of Lord Raglan ''The Destruction of Lord Raglan: A tragedy of the Crimean War, 1854–55'' is a non-fiction historical work by Christopher Hibbert, originally published by Longman in 1961. The work is a portrait of Lord Raglan, commander-in-chief of British for ...

Christopher Hibbert Christopher Hibbert MC (born Arthur Raymond Hibbert; 5 March 1924 – 21 December 2008) was an English author, historian and biographer. He has been called "a pearl of biographers" (''New Statesman'') and "probably the most widely-read popular ...

*1963 ''Mrs. Browning: A Poet's Work and Its Setting'' by

Alethea Hayter Alethea Catharine Hayter (7 November 1911 – 10 January 2006) was an English author and British Council Representative. Family and early life Hayter was the daughter of Sir William Goodenough Hayter, a legal adviser to the Egyptian government, ...

*1964 ''The Marsh Arabs'' by

Wilfred Thesiger Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger (3 June 1910 – 24 August 2003), also known as Mubarak bin Landan ( ar, مُبَارَك بِن لَنْدَن, ''the blessed one of London'') was a British military officer, explorer, and writer. Thesiger's trav ...

*1965 ''Journey from Obscurity: Wildred Owen, 1893-1919'' by

Harold Owen William Harold Owen (5 September 1897 – 26 November 1971) was the younger brother and biographer of the English poet and soldier, Wilfred Owen. He was born at the home of his paternal grandparents in Canon Street, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, where hi ...

*1966 ''

Wide Sargasso Sea ''Wide Sargasso Sea'' is a 1966 novel by Dominican-British author Jean Rhys. The novel serves as a postcolonial and feminist prequel to Charlotte Brontë's novel ''Jane Eyre'' (1847), describing the background to Mr. Rochester's marriage from t ...

'' by

Jean Rhys Jean Rhys, ( ; born Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams; 24 August 1890 – 14 May 1979) was a British novelist who was born and grew up in the Caribbean island of Dominica. From the age of 16, she mainly resided in England, where she was sent for her ...

*1967 ''Charlotte Bronte: The Evolution of Genius'' by

Winifred Gérin Winifred Eveleen Gérin , née Bourne, (7 October 1901 – 28 June 1981) was an English biographer born in Hamburg. She is best known as a biographer of the Brontë sisters and their brother Branwell, whose lives she researched extensively. ' ...

*1968 ''George Eliot: A Biography'' by Gordon S. Haight *1969 ''Sir William Hamilton: Envoy Extraordinary'' by Brian Fothergill *1969 V. S. Pritchett *1970 ''Britain and Her Army'' by

Corelli Barnett Correlli Douglas Barnett CBE FRHistS FRSL FRSA (28 June 1927 – 10 July 2022) was an English military historian, who also wrote works of economic history, particularly on the United Kingdom's post-war "industrial decline". Early life Barnett ...

*1971 ''Granite Island: Portrait of Corsica'' by Dorothy Carrington *1972 ''Mercian Hymns'' by

Geoffrey Hill Sir Geoffrey William Hill, FRSL (18 June 1932 – 30 June 2016) was an English poet, professor emeritus of English literature and religion, and former co-director of the Editorial Institute, at Boston University. Hill has been considered to be ...

*1973 ''

The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith ''The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith'' is a 1972 Booker Prize-nominated Australian novel by Thomas Keneally, and a 1978 Australian film of the same name directed by Fred Schepisi. The novel is based on the life of bushranger Jimmy Governor, the su ...

'' by

Thomas Keneally Thomas Michael Keneally, AO (born 7 October 1935) is an Australian novelist, playwright, essayist, and actor. He is best known for his non-fiction novel ''Schindler's Ark'', the story of Oskar Schindler's rescue of Jews during the Holocaust, wh ...

*1974 ''Mooncranker's Gift'' by

Barry Unsworth Barry Unsworth FRSL (10 August 19304 June 2012) was an English writer known for his historical fiction. He published 17 novels, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times, winning once for the 1992 novel '' Sacred Hunger''. Biograph ...

*1974 ''Eclipse'' by Nicholas Wollaston *1975 ''William Wilberforce'' by Robin Furneaux *1976 ''Angels at the Ritz'' by

William Trevor William Trevor Cox (24 May 1928 – 20 November 2016), known by his pen name William Trevor, was an Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world, he is widely regarded as one of the ...

*1978 ''The First Fabians'' by

Norman Ian MacKenzie Norman Ian MacKenzie (18 August 1921 – 18 June 2013) was a British journalist, academic and historian who helped in the founding of the Open University (OU) in the late 1960s. Early years MacKenzie was born in New Cross, south-east London in ...

and Jeanne MacKenzie *1979 ''Live Bait and Other Stories'' by

Frank Tuohy John Francis ("Frank") Tuohy, (2 May 1925 – 11 April 1999) was an English writer and academic. Born in Uckfield, Sussex, he attended Stowe School and went on to read Moral Sciences and English at King's College, Cambridge. On completion of ...

*1979 ''Beckford of Fonthill'' by Brian Fothergill *1980 '' Moortown'' by

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

*1981 '' Old Glory: An American Voyage'' by

Jonathan Raban Jonathan Raban (born 14 June 1942, Hempton, Norfolk, England) is a British travel writer, critic, and novelist. He has received several awards, such as the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Royal Society of Literature's Heinemann Award, t ...

*1983 ''Fortunate Traveller'' by

Derek Walcott Sir Derek Alton Walcott (23 January 1930 – 17 March 2017) was a Saint Lucian poet and playwright. He received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature. His works include the Homeric epic poem ''Omeros'' (1990), which many critics view "as Walcot ...

*1984 ''T.S. Eliot: A Life'' by

Peter Ackroyd Peter Ackroyd (born 5 October 1949) is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a specialist interest in the history and culture of London. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, William ...

(joint winner) *1984 ''Eleni'' by

Nicholas Gage Nicholas Gage (born Nikolaos Gatzoyiannis; el, Νικόλαος Γκατζογιάννης; July 23, 1939) is a Greek-born American author and investigative journalist. Early life Nicholas Gage (original name, Nikos Gatzoyiannis) was born in 19 ...

(joint winner) *1985 ''Secrets of a Woman's Heart: Later Life of Ivy Compton-Burnett, 1920–69'' by

Hilary Spurling Susan Hilary Spurling CBE FRSL ( Forrest; born 25 December 1940) is a British writer, known for her work as a journalist and biographer. Early life and education Born at Stockport, Cheshire, to circuit judge Gilbert Alexander Forrest (1912–197 ...

*1986 ''

The Blind Watchmaker ''The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design'' is a 1986 book by Richard Dawkins, in which the author presents an explanation of, and argument for, the theory of evolution by means of natural selecti ...

'' by

Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ath ...

*1988 ''The Russian Album'' by

Michael Ignatieff Michael Grant Ignatieff (; born May 12, 1947) is a Canadian author, academic and former politician who served as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011. Known for his work as a histo ...

*1989 ''Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A Biography'' by

Margaret Forster Margaret Forster (25 May 1938 – 8 February 2016) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, historian and critic, best known for the 1965 novel ''Georgy Girl'', made into a successful film of the same name, which inspired a hit song by T ...

*1990 ''Short Afternoons'' by

Kit Wright Kit Wright (born 17 June 1944 in Crockham Hill, Kent) is the author of more than twenty-five books, for both adults and children, and the winner of awards including an Arts Council Writers' Award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Hawthornd ...

*1991 ''Ford Maddox Ford'' by

Alan Judd Alan Judd (born 1946) is a pseudonym used by Alan Edwin Petty. Born in 1946, he is a former soldier and diplomat who now works as a security analyst and writer in the United Kingdom. He writes both books and articles, regularly contributing to a ...

*1994 ''The Handless Maiden'' by

Vicki Feaver Vicki Feaver (born 1943) is an English poet. She has published three poetry collections. Feaver's poem "Judith", from her book, ''Handless Maiden'', was awarded the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. The book was also the recipient of a Heinem ...

*1995 ''Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer'' by

Patrick French Patrick French (born 1966) is a British writer, historian and academician. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh where he studied English and American literature, and received a PhD in South Asian Studies. He was appointed as the inau ...

(joint winner) *1995

Paul Durcan Paul Durcan (born 16 October 1944) is a contemporary Irish poet. Early life Durcan was born and grew up in Dublin and in Turlough, County Mayo. His father, John, was a barrister and circuit court judge; father and son had a difficult and forma ...

(joint winner) *1996 ''The Shadow of Hiroshima and Other Film/Poems'' by

Tony Harrison Tony Harrison (born 30 April 1937) is an English poet, translator and playwright. He was born in Beeston, Leeds and he received his education in Classics from Leeds Grammar School and Leeds University. He is one of Britain's foremost verse w ...

*1997 ''Victor Hugo'' by

Graham Robb Graham Macdonald Robb FRSL (born 2 June 1958, Manchester) is a British author and critic specialising in French literature. Biography Born at Manchester, Robb attended the Royal Grammar School, Worcester, before going up to Exeter College, Ox ...

*1998 ''Coleridge: Darker Reflections, 1804–1834'' by Richard Holmes *2001 ''Night of Stone: Death and Memory in Twentieth-Century Russia'' by

Catherine Merridale Catherine Anne Merridale, FBA (born 12 October 1959) is a British writer and historian with a special interest in Russian history. Early life and education Merridale was born on 12 October 1959 to Philip and Anne Merridale. She was educated at ...

*2002 ''Charles Darwin: The Power of Place'' by

Janet Browne Elizabeth Janet Browne (née Bell, born 30 March 1950) is a British historian of science, known especially for her work on the history of 19th-century biology. She taught at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, University Coll ...

*2003 ''Primo Levi'' by Ian Thomson *2004 ''Power and Glory'' by

Adam Nicolson Adam Nicolson, (born 12 September 1957) is an English author who has written about history, landscape, great literature and the sea. He is also the 5th Baron Carnock, but does not use the title. He is noted for his books ''Sea Room'' (about t ...

References

English literary awards Awards established in 1945 1945 establishments in England 2003 disestablishments in England British fiction awards British non-fiction literary awards {{lit-award-stub