Year |
Fiction Award |
Biography Award |
Drama Award
|
1919 |
Hugh Walpole, The Secret City |
Henry Festing Jones, Samuel Butler, Author of Erewhon (1835–1902) – A Memoir (
Samuel Butler) |
—
|
1920 |
D. H. Lawrence,
The Lost Girl |
G. M. Trevelyan, Lord Grey of the Reform Bill (
Earl Grey) |
—
|
1921 |
Walter de la Mare,
Memoirs of a Midget |
Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria (
Queen Victoria) |
—
|
1922 |
David Garnett,
Lady into Fox |
Percy Lubbock, Earlham (autobiography) |
—
|
1923 |
Arnold Bennett,
Riceyman Steps |
Ronald Ross, Memoirs, Etc. (autobiography) |
—
|
1924 |
E. M. Forster,
A Passage to India |
William Wilson, The House of Airlie (The
Earls of Airlie) |
—
|
1925 |
Liam O'Flaherty,
The Informer |
Geoffrey Scott, The Portrait of Zelide (
Isabelle de Charrière) |
—
|
1926 |
Radclyffe Hall,
Adam's Breed |
Reverend Dr H. B. Workman, John Wyclif: A Study of the English Medieval Church (
John Wyclif) |
—
|
1927 |
Francis Brett Young,
Portrait of Clare |
H. A. L. Fisher, James Bryce, Viscount Bryce of Dechmont, O.M. (
James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce) |
—
|
1928 |
Siegfried Sassoon,
Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man |
John Buchan,
Montrose (
James Graham)
[note 1] |
—
|
1929 |
J. B. Priestley,
The Good Companions |
Lord David Cecil, The Stricken Deer: or The Life of Cowper (
William Cowper) |
—
|
1930 |
E. H. Young, Miss Mole |
Francis Yeats-Brown,
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (autobiography) |
—
|
1931 |
Kate O'Brien, Without My Cloak |
J. Y. T. Greig, David Hume (
David Hume) |
—
|
1932 |
Helen de Guerry Simpson, Boomerang |
Stephen Gwynn, The Life of Mary Kingsley (
Mary Kingsley) |
—
|
1933 |
A. G. Macdonell,
England, Their England |
Violet Clifton, The Book of Talbot (
John Talbot Clifton) |
—
|
1934 |
Robert Graves,
I, Claudius and Claudius the God |
J. E. Neale, Queen Elizabeth (
Elizabeth I of England) |
—
|
1935 |
L. H. Myers, The Root and the Flower |
Raymond Wilson Chambers, Thomas More (
Thomas More) |
—
|
1936 |
Winifred Holtby,
South Riding |
Edward Sackville West, A Flame in Sunlight: The Life and Work of Thomas de Quincey (
Thomas de Quincey) |
—
|
1937 |
Neil M. Gunn,
Highland River |
Lord Eustace Percy, John Knox (
John Knox) |
—
|
1938 |
C. S. Forester,
A Ship of the Line and
Flying Colours |
Sir
Edmund Chambers, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (
Samuel Taylor Coleridge) |
—
|
1939 |
Aldous Huxley,
After Many a Summer |
David C. Douglas, English Scholars
[note 2] |
—
|
1940 |
Charles Morgan, The Voyage |
Hilda F. M. Prescott, Spanish Tudor: Mary I of England (
Mary I of England) |
—
|
1941 |
Joyce Cary, A House of Children |
John Gore, King George V (
George V) |
—
|
1942 |
Arthur Waley, Translation of
Monkey by
Wu Cheng'en |
Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, Henry Ponsonby: Queen Victoria's Private Secretary (
Henry Ponsonby) |
—
|
1943 |
Mary Lavin,
Tales from Bective Bridge |
G. G. Coulton, Fourscore Years (autobiography) |
—
|
1944 |
Forrest Reid, Young Tom |
C. V. Wedgwood, William the Silent (
William the Silent) |
—
|
1945 |
L. A. G. Strong, Travellers |
D. S. MacColl, Philip Wilson Steer (
Philip Wilson Steer) |
—
|
1946 |
Oliver Onions, Poor Man's Tapestry |
Richard Aldington, A Life of Wellington: The Duke (
Arthur Wellesley) |
—
|
1947 |
L. P. Hartley,
Eustace and Hilda |
Charles E. Raven, English Naturalists from Neckam to Ray (
Alexander Neckam and
John Ray) |
—
|
1948 |
Graham Greene,
The Heart of the Matter |
Percy A. Scholes, The Great Dr. Burney (
Charles Burney) |
—
|
1949 |
Emma Smith, The Far Cry |
John Connell, W. E. Henley (
W. E. Henley) |
—
|
1950 |
Robert Henriques,
Through the Valley |
Cecil Woodham-Smith, Florence Nightingale (
Florence Nightingale) |
—
|
1951 |
Chapman Mortimer, Father Goose |
Noel Annan, Leslie Stephen (
Leslie Stephen) |
—
|
1952 |
Evelyn Waugh,
Men at Arms |
G. M. Young, Stanley Baldwin (
Stanley Baldwin) |
—
|
1953 |
Margaret Kennedy,
Troy Chimneys |
Carola Oman, Sir John Moore (
John Moore) |
—
|
1954 |
C. P. Snow,
The New Men and
The Masters |
Keith Feiling, Warren Hastings (
Warren Hastings) |
—
|
1955 |
Ivy Compton-Burnett, Mother and Son |
R. W. Ketton-Cremer, Thomas Gray (
Thomas Gray) |
—
|
1956 |
Rose Macaulay,
The Towers of Trebizond |
St John Greer Ervine, George Bernard Shaw (
George Bernard Shaw) |
—
|
1957 |
Anthony Powell,
At Lady Molly's |
Maurice Cranston, Life of John Locke (
John Locke) |
—
|
1958 |
Angus Wilson,
The Middle Age of Mrs. Eliot |
Joyce Hemlow, The History of Fanny Burney (
Fanny Burney) |
—
|
1959 |
Morris West,
The Devil's Advocate |
Christopher Hassall, Edward Marsh (
Edward Marsh) |
—
|
1960 |
Rex Warner, Imperial Caesar |
Canon
Adam Fox, The Life of Dean Inge (
William Ralph Inge) |
—
|
1961 |
Jennifer Dawson, The Ha-Ha |
M. K. Ashby, Joseph Ashby of Tysoe (
Joseph Ashby) |
—
|
1962 |
Ronald Hardy, Act of Destruction |
Meriol Trevor, Newman: The Pillar and the Cloud and Newman: Light in Winter (
John Henry Newman) |
—
|
1963 |
Gerda Charles, A Slanting Light |
Georgina Battiscombe, John Keble: A Study in Limitations (
John Keble) |
—
|
1964 |
Frank Tuohy, The Ice Saints |
Elizabeth Longford, Victoria R.I. (
Queen Victoria) |
—
|
1965 |
Muriel Spark,
The Mandelbaum Gate |
Mary Caroline Moorman, William Wordsworth: The Later Years 1803–1850 (
William Wordsworth) |
—
|
1966 |
Christine Brooke-Rose, Such
Aidan Higgins, Langrishe, Go Down |
Geoffrey Keynes, The Life of William Harvey (
William Harvey) |
—
|
1967 |
Margaret Drabble,
Jerusalem the Golden |
Winifred Gérin, Charlotte Brontë: The Evolution of Genius (
Charlotte Brontë) |
—
|
1968 |
Maggie Ross, The Gasteropod |
Gordon Haight, George Eliot (
George Eliot) |
—
|
1969 |
Elizabeth Bowen,
Eva Trout |
Antonia Fraser, Mary, Queen of Scots (
Mary, Queen of Scots) |
—
|
1970 |
Lily Powell, The Bird of Paradise |
Jasper Ridley, Lord Palmerston (
Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston) |
—
|
1971 |
Nadine Gordimer,
A Guest of Honour |
Julia Namier, Lewis Namier (
Lewis Namier) |
—
|
1972 |
John Berger,
G |
Quentin Bell, Virginia Woolf (
Virginia Woolf) |
—
|
1973 |
Iris Murdoch,
The Black Prince |
Robin Lane Fox, Alexander the Great (
Alexander the Great) |
—
|
1974 |
Lawrence Durrell,
Monsieur: or, The Prince of Darkness |
John Wain, Samuel Johnson (
Samuel Johnson) |
—
|
1975 |
Brian Moore,
The Great Victorian Collection |
Karl Miller, Cockburn's Millennium (
Henry Cockburn) |
—
|
1976 |
John Banville,
Doctor Copernicus |
Ronald Hingley, A New Life of Chekhov (
Anton Chekhov) |
—
|
1977 |
John le Carré,
The Honourable Schoolboy |
George Painter, Chateaubriand: Volume 1 – The Longed-For Tempests (
François-René de Chateaubriand) |
—
|
1978 |
Maurice Gee,
Plumb |
Robert Gittings, The Older Hardy (
Thomas Hardy) |
—
|
1979 |
William Golding,
Darkness Visible |
Brian Finney, Christopher Isherwood: A Critical Biography (
Christopher Isherwood) |
—
|
1980 |
J. M. Coetzee,
Waiting for the Barbarians |
Robert B. Martin, Tennyson: The Unquiet Heart (
Alfred Tennyson) |
—
|
1981 |
Salman Rushdie,
Midnight's Children
Paul Theroux,
The Mosquito Coast |
Victoria Glendinning, Edith Sitwell: Unicorn Among Lions (
Edith Sitwell) |
—
|
1982 |
Bruce Chatwin,
On the Black Hill |
Richard Ellmann, James Joyce (
James Joyce) |
—
|
1983 |
Jonathan Keates, Allegro Postillions |
Alan Walker, Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years (
Franz Liszt) |
—
|
1984 |
J. G. Ballard,
Empire of the Sun
Angela Carter,
Nights at the Circus |
Lyndall Gordon, Virginia Woolf: A Writer's Life (
Virginia Woolf) |
—
|
1985 |
Robert Edric, Winter Garden |
David Nokes, Jonathan Swift: A Hypocrite Reversed (
Jonathan Swift) |
—
|
1986 |
Jenny Joseph, Persephone |
Dame
Felicitas Corrigan, Helen Waddell (
Helen Waddell) |
—
|
1987 |
George Mackay Brown, The Golden Bird: Two Orkney Stories |
Ruth Dudley Edwards, Victor Gollancz: A Biography (
Victor Gollancz) |
—
|
1988 |
Piers Paul Read, A Season in the West |
Brian McGuinness, Wittgenstein, A Life: Young Ludwig (1889–1921) (
Ludwig Wittgenstein) |
—
|
1989 |
James Kelman,
A Disaffection |
Ian Gibson, Federico García Lorca: A Life (
Federico García Lorca) |
—
|
1990 |
William Boyd,
Brazzaville Beach |
Claire Tomalin, The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens (
Ellen Ternan and
Charles Dickens) |
—
|
1991 |
Iain Sinclair, Downriver |
Adrian Desmond and
James Moore, Darwin (
Charles Darwin) |
—
|
1992 |
Rose Tremain,
Sacred Country |
Charles Nicholl, The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe (
Christopher Marlowe) |
—
|
1993 |
Caryl Phillips,
Crossing the River |
Richard Holmes, Dr Johnson and Mr Savage (
Samuel Johnson,
Richard Savage) |
—
|
1994 |
Alan Hollinghurst,
The Folding Star |
Doris Lessing,
Under My Skin (autobiography) |
—
|
1995 |
Christopher Priest,
The Prestige |
Gitta Sereny, Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth (
Albert Speer) |
—
|
1996 |
Graham Swift,
Last Orders
Alice Thompson,
Justine |
Diarmaid MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer: A Life (
Thomas Cranmer) |
—
|
1997 |
Andrew Miller,
Ingenious Pain |
R. F. Foster, W. B. Yeats: A Life, Volume 1 – The Apprentice Mage 1865–1914 (
W. B. Yeats) |
—
|
1998 |
Beryl Bainbridge,
Master Georgie |
Peter Ackroyd, The Life of Thomas More (
Thomas More) |
—
|
1999 |
Timothy Mo, Renegade, or Halo2 |
Kathryn Hughes, George Eliot: The Last Victorian (
George Eliot) |
—
|
2000 |
Zadie Smith,
White Teeth |
Martin Amis, Experience (autobiography) |
—
|
2001 |
Sid Smith,
Something Like a House |
Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes: Volume 3 – Fighting for Britain 1937–1946 (
John Maynard Keynes) |
—
|
2002 |
Jonathan Franzen,
The Corrections |
Jenny Uglow, The Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made the Future 1730–1810 (
Lunar Society of Birmingham) |
—
|
2003 |
Andrew O'Hagan, Personality |
Janet Browne, Charles Darwin: Volume 2 – The Power of Place (
Charles Darwin) |
—
|
2004 |
David Peace, GB84 |
Jonathan Bate, John Clare: A Biography (
John Clare) |
—
|
2005 |
Ian McEwan,
Saturday
[13] |
Sue Prideaux, Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream (
Edvard Munch)
[13] |
—
|
2006 |
Cormac McCarthy,
The Road |
Byron Rogers, The Man Who Went Into the West: The Life of R. S. Thomas (
R. S. Thomas) |
—
|
2007 |
Rosalind Belben, Our Horses in Egypt
[14] |
Rosemary Hill, God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain (
Augustus Pugin)
[14] |
—
|
2008 |
Sebastian Barry,
The Secret Scripture
[15] |
Michael Holroyd, A Strange Eventful History (The families of
Ellen Terry and
Henry Irving)
[15] |
—
|
2009 |
A. S. Byatt,
The Children's Book
[16] |
John Carey, William Golding: The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies (
William Golding)
[16] |
—
|
2010 |
Tatjana Soli,
The Lotus Eaters
[17] |
Hilary Spurling, Burying the Bones: Pearl Buck in China (
Pearl Buck)
[17] |
—
|
2011 |
Padgett Powell, You and I
[18] |
Fiona MacCarthy, The Last Pre-Raphaelite: Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination (
Edward Burne-Jones)
[18] |
—
|
2012 |
Alan Warner, The Deadman's Pedal
[3] |
Tanya Harrod, The Last Sane Man: Michael Cardew, Modern Pots, Colonialism and the Counterculture (
Michael Cardew)
[3] |
Tim Price, The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning
[3]
|
2013 |
Jim Crace,
Harvest
[19] |
Hermione Lee, Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life (
Penelope Fitzgerald)
[19] |
Rory Mullarkey, Cannibals
[20]
|
2014 |
Zia Haider Rahman,
In the Light of What We Know
[21] |
Richard Benson, The Valley: A Hundred Years in the Life of a Family
[21] |
Gordon Dahlquist, Tomorrow Come Today
[22]
|
2015 |
Benjamin Markovits, You Don't Have to Live Like This
[23] |
James Shapiro, 1606: Shakespeare and the Year of Lear (
William Shakespeare)
[23] |
Gary Owen, Iphigenia in Splott
[24]
|
2016 |
Eimear McBride,
The Lesser Bohemians
[25] |
Laura Cumming, The Vanishing Man: In Pursuit of Velázquez (
Diego Velázquez)
[25] |
David Ireland, Cyprus Avenue
[26]
|
2017 |
Eley Williams, Attrib. and other stories
[27] |
Craig Brown,
Ma'am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret (
Princess Margaret)
[27] |
Tanika Gupta, Lions and Tigers
[28]
|
2018 |
Olivia Laing,
Crudo
[29] |
Lindsey Hilsum, In Extremis: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie Colvin (
Marie Colvin)
[29] |
Clare Barron, Dance Nation
[30]
|
2019 |
Lucy Ellmann,
Ducks, Newburyport
[31] |
George Szirtes, The Photographer at Sixteen (autobiography)
[31] |
Yasmin Joseph, J'Ouvert
[32]
|
2020 |
Shola von Reinhold, Lote
[33] |
Doireann Ni Ghriofa, A Ghost in the Throat (autobiography)
[33] |
N/A
[5]
|
2021 |
Keith Ridgway,
A Shock
[34] |
Amit Chaudhuri, Finding the Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music
[34] |
N/A
[5]
|
2022 |
Barbara Kingsolver,
Demon Copperhead
[35] |
Daryl Pinckney, Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattan
[35] |
N/A
[5]
|