The WH Smith Literary Award was an award founded in 1959 by British high street retailer

W H Smith WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and ...

. Its founding aim was stated to be to "encourage and bring international esteem to authors of the British Commonwealth"; originally open to all residents of the UK, the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

and the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. ...

, it latterly admitted foreign works in translation and works by US authors. The final three winners were Americans (

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...

Donna Tartt Donna Louise Tartt (born December 23, 1963) is an American novelist and essayist. Early life Tartt was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta, the elder of two daughters. She was raised in the nearby town of Grenada. Her fa ...

and Richard Powers), and 2005 was the award's final year. The "W H Smith Illustration Award" ran from 1987 to 1994. The "W H Smith Mind-Boggling Book Award" for children's literature ran from 1993 to 1996. W H Smith currently sponsors the National Book Awards Children's Book of the Year (the "British Children's Book Award" through 2009).

Winners

1959

Patrick White Patrick Victor Martindale White (28 May 1912 – 30 September 1990) was a British-born Australian writer who published 12 novels, three short-story collections, and eight plays, from 1935 to 1987. White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, ...

, ''

Voss Voss () is a municipality and a traditional district in Vestland county, Norway. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Vossevangen. Other villages include Bolstadøyri, Borstrondi, Evanger, Kvitheim, Mjølfjell, ...

''
1960

Laurie Lee Laurence Edward Alan "Laurie" Lee, MBE (26 June 1914 – 13 May 1997) was an English poet, novelist and screenwriter, who was brought up in the small village of Slad in Gloucestershire. His most notable work is the autobiographical trilo ...

, ''

Cider With Rosie ''Cider with Rosie'' is a 1959 book by Laurie Lee (published in the US as ''Edge of Day: Boyhood in the West of England'', 1960). It is the first book of a trilogy that continues with ''As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning'' (1969) and '' A ...

''
1961

Nadine Gordimer Nadine Gordimer (20 November 192313 July 2014) was a South African writer and political activist. She received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, recognized as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writing has ... been of very great b ...

, '' Friday's Footprint''
1962 J. R. Ackerley, ''

We Think the World of You ''We Think the World of You '' is a 1988 film directed by Colin Gregg and starring Gary Oldman and Alan Bates. It is adapted from the 1960 J.R. Ackerley novel of the same name. It was produced by Tomasso Jandelli and Cinecom Pictures. Plot In p ...

''
1963

Gabriel Fielding Alan Gabriel Barnsley (pen name Gabriel Fielding, 25 March 1916 – 27 November 1986) was an English novelist whose works include: ''In the Time of Greenbloom'', ''The Birthday King'', ''Through Streets Broad and Narrow'' and ''The Women of Gui ...

, ''

The Birthday King ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

''
1964

Ernst H. Gombrich Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich (; ; 30 March 1909 – 3 November 2001) was an Austrian-born art historian who, after settling in England in 1936, became a naturalised British citizen in 1947 and spent most of his working life in the United Ki ...

, '' Meditations on a Hobby-Horse''
1965

Leonard Woolf Leonard Sidney Woolf (; – ) was a British political theorist, author, publisher, and civil servant. He was married to author Virginia Woolf. As a member of the Labour Party and the Fabian Society, Woolf was an avid publisher of his own wo ...

, ''

Beginning Again Beginning may refer to: * ''Beginning'' (album), by Pakho Chau * ''Beginning'' (play), a 2017 play by David Eldridge * ''Beginning'' (film), a Georgian-French drama film *"Beginning", a song by heavy metal band Kotipelto *"Beginning", a 2018 track ...

''
1966 R. C. Hutchinson, ''

A Child Possessed A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

''
1967 Jean Rhys, '' Wide Sargasso Sea''
1968 V. S. Naipaul, ''

The Mimic Men ''The Mimic Men'' is a novel by V. S. Naipaul, first published by Andre Deutsch in the UK in 1967. Introduction Not long after finishing '' A Flag on the Island'', Naipaul began work on the novel ''The Mimic Men'', though for almost a year he d ...

''
1969 Robert Gittings, ''

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculos ...

''
1970

John Fowles John Robert Fowles (; 31 March 1926 – 5 November 2005) was an English novelist of international renown, critically positioned between modernism and postmodernism. His work was influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, among others. Aft ...

, '' The French Lieutenant's Woman''
1971

Nan Fairbrother Nancy Mary Fairbrother (1913–1971) was an English writer and lecturer on landscape and land use. She was a member of the UK Institute of Landscape Architects, now the Landscape Institute. Her brother, James Alick (Rex) Fairbrother, was also a la ...

, '' New Lives, New Landscapes''
1972

Kathleen Raine Kathleen Jessie Raine CBE (14 June 1908 – 6 July 2003) was a British poet, critic, and scholar, writing in particular on William Blake, W. B. Yeats and Thomas Taylor. Known for her interest in various forms of spirituality, most prominently ...

, '' The Lost Country''
1973 Brian Moore, ''

Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

''
1974

Anthony Powell Anthony Dymoke Powell ( ; 21 December 1905 – 28 March 2000) was an English novelist best known for his 12-volume work ''A Dance to the Music of Time'', published between 1951 and 1975. It is on the list of longest novels in English. Powell' ...

, '' Temporary Kings''
1975

Jon Stallworthy Jon Howie Stallworthy, (18 January 1935 – 19 November 2014) was a British literary critic and poet. He was Professor of English at the University of Oxford from 1992 to 2000, and Professor Emeritus in retirement. He was also a Fellow of Wolfso ...

, ''

Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was much influenced b ...

''
1976

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

, ''

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...

''
1977

Ronald Lewin George Ronald Lewin CBE (11 October 1914 – 6 January 1984), later known as Ronald Lewin, was a British officer, publishing editor, radio producer and military historian. Education Lewin attended University of Oxford at The Queens College on an ...

, '' Slim: The Standardbearer''
1978

Patrick Leigh Fermor Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011) was an English writer, scholar, soldier and polyglot. He played a prominent role in the Cretan resistance during the Second World War, and was widely seen as Britain's great ...

, '' A Time of Gifts''
1979

Mark Girouard Mark Girouard (7 October 1931 – 16 August 2022) was a British architectural historian. He was an authority on the country house, and Elizabethan and Victorian architecture. Life and career Girouard was born on 7 October 1931. He was educ ...

, '' Life in the English Country House''
1980 Thom Gunn, '' Selected Poems 1950–1975''
1981

Isabel Colegate Isabel Diana Colegate (10 September 1931 – 12 March 2023) was a British author and literary agent. Early life and education Born in Paddington in London, England, Colegate was the youngest of her parents' four daughters. Her father was Sir ...

, '' The Shooting Party''
1982 George Clare, '' Last Waltz in Vienna''
1983

A. N. Wilson Andrew Norman Wilson (born 27 October 1950)"A. N. Wilson"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''.

, '' Wise Virgin''
1984

Philip Larkin Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, ''The North Ship'', was published in 1945, followed by two novels, ''Jill'' (1946) and ''A Girl in Winter'' (1947 ...

, '' Required Writing''
1985 David Hughes, ''

The Pork Butcher ''The Pork Butcher'' is a novel by English writer David Hughes, first published in 1984, and winner of the 1984 Welsh Arts council prize and the 1985 WH Smith Literary Award. Outline Based by the massacre of the inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glan ...

''
1986

Doris Lessing Doris May Lessing (; 22 October 1919 – 17 November 2013) was a British-Zimbabwean novelist. She was born to British parents in Iran, where she lived until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she remain ...

, '' The Good Terrorist''
1987 Elizabeth Jennings, '' Collected Poems 1953–1985''
1988 Robert Hughes, '' The Fatal Shore''
1989 Christopher Hill, '' A Turbulent, Seditious and Factious People: John Bunyan and His Church''
1990

V. S. Pritchett Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett (also known as VSP; 16 December 1900 – 20 March 1997) was a British writer and literary critic. Pritchett was known particularly for his short stories, collated in a number of volumes. His non-fiction works incl ...

, '' A Careless Widow and Other Stories''
1991

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 ...

, ''

Omeros ' is an epic poem by Saint Lucian writer Derek Walcott, first published in 1990. The work is divided into seven "books" containing a total of sixty-four chapters. Many critics view ''Omeros'' as Walcott's finest work. In 2022, it was included ...

''
1992 Thomas Pakenham, '' The Scramble for Africa ''
1993

Michèle Roberts Michèle Brigitte Roberts FRSL (born 20 May 1949) is a British writer, novelist and poet. She is the daughter of a French Catholic teacher mother (Monique Caulle) and English Protestant father (Reginald Roberts), and has dual UK–France national ...

, '' Daughters of the House''
1994 Vikram Seth, ''

A Suitable Boy ''A Suitable Boy'' is a novel by Vikram Seth, published in 1993. With 1,349 pages (1,488 pages in paperback), the English-language book is one of the longest novels published in a single volume. ''A Suitable Boy'' is set in a newly post-inde ...

''
1995

Alice Munro Alice Ann Munro (; ; born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Munro's work has been described as revolutionizing the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move f ...

, ''

Open Secrets ''Open Secrets'' () is a book of short stories by Alice Munro published by McClelland and Stewart in 1994. It was nominated for the 1994 Governor General's Award for English Fiction.Simons, Paula (November 6, 1994). "Munro pulls no punches", ''E ...

''
1996

Simon Schama Sir Simon Michael Schama (; born 13 February 1945) is an English historian specialising in art history, Dutch history, Jewish history, and French history. He is a University Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University. He fi ...

, '' Landscape and Memory''
1997

Orlando Figes Orlando Guy Figes () is a British historian and writer. Until his retirement, he was Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London. Figes is known for his works on Russian history, such as '' A People's Tragedy'' (1996), ''Nata ...

, '' A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution – 1891–1924''
1998

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 ...

, ''

Tales From Ovid ''Tales from Ovid'' is a poetical work written by the English poet Ted Hughes, published in 1997 by Faber and Faber. The book is a retelling of twenty-four tales from Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. It won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award for 19 ...

''
1999

Beryl Bainbridge Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge (21 November 1932 – 2 July 2010) was an English writer from Liverpool. She was primarily known for her works of psychological fiction, often macabre tales set among the English working class. Bainbridge won the ...

, '' Master Georgie''
2000

Melvyn Bragg Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg, (born 6 October 1939), is an English broadcaster, author and parliamentarian. He is best known for his work with ITV as editor and presenter of '' The South Bank Show'' (1978–2010), and for the BBC Radio 4 documen ...

, ''

The Soldier's Return ''The Soldier's Return'' is the first novel in a quartet written by Melvyn Bragg. Plot summary Sam Richardson returns to the small Cumbrian town of Wigton after fighting in Burma during the Second World War. The war has given Sam’s wife Ellen ...

''
2001

, '' The Human Stain''
2002

Ian McEwan Ian Russell McEwan, (born 21 June 1948) is an English novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, ''The Times'' featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked him number 19 in its list of th ...

, ''

Atonement Atonement (also atoning, to atone) is the concept of a person taking action to correct previous wrongdoing on their part, either through direct action to undo the consequences of that act, equivalent action to do good for others, or some other ...

''
2003

, '' The Little Friend''
2004 Richard Powers, '' The Time of Our Singing''
2005

, '' The Plot Against America''

WH Smith Mind-Boggling Book Award

For a few years, W H Smith also offered a children's book award. The judges were children between nine and twelve, and the intention was to promote books which were "accessible to children in content and price, as well as offering a gripping read." The winners were: 1993 Philip Ridley, ''

Krindlekrax ''Krindlekrax'' is a thriller children's novel by author Philip Ridley. It was first published in 1991 by Jonathan Cape and republished in 1992 by Red Fox and then again in 2001 by Puffin Books where it is still in print. The book won the Nes ...

''
1994 Malorie Blackman, ''

Hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

''
1995 Maggie Prince, '' Memoirs of a Dangerous Alien''
1996

Sharon Creech Sharon Creech (born July 29, 1945) is an American writer of children's novels. She was the first American winner of the Carnegie Medal for British children's books and the first person to win both the American Newbery Medal and the British C ...

, ''

Walk Two Moons ''Walk Two Moons'' is a novel written by Sharon Creech, published by HarperCollins in 1994 and winner of the 1995 Newbery Medal. The novel was originally intended as a follow-up to Creech's previous novel ''Absolutely Normal Chaos''; but, the ide ...

References

{{reflist Commonwealth literary awards Awards established in 1959 1959 establishments in the United Kingdom Awards disestablished in 2005 2005 disestablishments in the United Kingdom British fiction awards