Andrew Miller wins the 2025 Walter Scott Prize for The Land in Winter
Andrew Miller's The Land in Winter, set during the harsh winter of 1962-63, has won the £25,000 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.
Andrew Miller has won the 2025 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for The Land in Winter. The award was presented at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose on 12 June 2025. The winner receives £25,000, and each shortlisted author £1,500.
The novel is set in a remote English community during the long, severe winter of 1962-63 and follows two married couples, Bill and Rita, and Eric and Irene. Miller had been shortlisted for the prize twice before.
The judging panel was chaired by the writer Katie Grant, with James Holloway, Elizabeth Laird, James Naughtie, Saira Shah, Rosi Byard-Jones and Rosamund de la Hey. The prize was founded by the Duke of Buccleuch and is run with the Abbotsford Trust.
Why it matters: The Land in Winter is set within living memory, which is a useful reminder of how broadly the prize defines historical fiction; eligible novels need only be set at least sixty years before publication. For writers working with the recent past, that places family history and post-war Britain within reach of one of the larger fiction prizes in the UK.
Source: Walter Scott Prize: The Land in Winter wins the 2025 prize.