| Year
| Author
| Book
|
| 1947
| A. L. Barker
| Innocents
|
| 1948
| P. H. Newby
| Journey to the Interior
|
| 1949
| Hamish Henderson
| Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica
|
| 1950
| Nigel Kneale
| Tomato Cain & Other Stories
|
| 1951
| Roland Camberton
| Scamp
|
| 1952
| Francis King
| The Dividing Stream
|
| 1953
| Emyr Humphreys
| Hear and Forgive
|
| 1954
| Doris Lessing
| Five Short Novels
|
| 1955
| Kingsley Amis
| Lucky Jim
|
| 1956
| Elizabeth Jennings
| A Way of Looking
|
| 1957
| George Lamming
| In the Castle of My Skin
|
| 1958
| John Wain
| Preliminary Essays
|
| 1959
| Thom Gunn
| A Sense Of Movement
|
| 1960
| Ted Hughes
| The Hawk in the Rain
|
| 1961
| V. S. Naipaul
| Miguel Street
|
| 1962
| Hugh Thomas
| The Spanish Civil War
|
| 1963
| David Storey
| Flight Into Camden
|
| 1964
| Dan Jacobson
| Time of Arrival
|
|
| John Le Carré
| The Spy Who Came In From the Cold
|
| 1965
| Peter Everett
| Negatives
|
| 1966
| Michael Frayn
| The Tin Men
|
|
| Julian Mitchell
| The White Father
|
| 1967
| B. S. Johnson
| Trawl
|
|
| Andrew Sinclair
| The Better Half
|
| 1968
| Paul Bailey
| At The Jerusalem
|
|
| Seamus Heaney
| Death of a Naturalist
|
| 1969
| Angela Carter
| Several Perceptions
|
| 1970
| Jane Gaskell
| A Sweet Sweet Summer
|
|
| Piers Paul Read
| Monk Dawson
|
| 1971
| Susan Hill
| I'm the King of the Castle
|
|
| Richard Barber
| The Knight and Chivalry
|
|
| Michael Hastings
| Tussy Is Me
|
| 1972
| Douglas Dunn
| Terry Street
|
|
| Gillian Tindall
| Fly Away Home
|
| 1973
| Peter Prince
| Play Things
|
|
| Paul Strathern
| A Season in Abyssinia
|
|
| Jonathan Street
| Prudence Dictates
|
| 1974
| Martin Amis
| The Rachel Papers
|
| 1975
| No Award
| No Award
|
| 1976
| Dominic Cooper
| The Dead of Winter
|
|
| Ian McEwan
| First Love, Last Rites
|
| 1977
| Richard Holmes
| Shelley: The Pursuit
|
| 1978
| Tom Paulin
| A State of Justice
|
|
| Nigel Williams
| My Life Closed Twice
|
| 1979
| Helen Hodgman
| Jack & Jill
|
|
| Sara Maitland
| Daughter of Jerusalem
|
| 1980
| Max Hastings
| Bomber Command
|
|
| Christopher Reid
| Arcadia
|
|
| Humphrey Carpenter
| The Inklings
|
| 1981
| Julian Barnes
| Metroland
|
|
| Clive Sinclair
| Hearts of Gold
|
|
| A. N. Wilson
| The Healing Art
|
| 1982
| William Boyd
| A Good Man In Africa
|
|
| Adam MarsJones
| Lantern Lecture
|
| 1983
| Lisa St Aubin de Teran
| Keepers of the House
|
| 1984
| Peter Ackroyd
| The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde
|
|
| Timothy Garton Ash
| The Polish Revolution: Solidarity
|
|
| Sean O'Brien
| The Indoor Park
|
| 1985
| Blake Morrison
| Dark Glasses
|
|
| Jeremy Reed
| By the Fisheries
|
|
| Jane Rogers
| Her Living Image
|
| 1986
| Patricia Ferguson
| Family Myths and Legends
|
|
| Adam Nicolson
| Frontiers
|
|
| Tim Parks
| Tongues of Flame
|
| 1987
| Stephen Gregory
| The Cormorant
|
|
| Janni Howker
| Isaac Campion
|
|
| Andrew Motion
| The Lamberts
|
| 1988
| Jimmy Burns
| The Land That Lost Its Heroes
|
|
| Carol Ann Duffy
| Selling Manhattan
|
|
| Matthew Kneale
| Whore Banquets
|
| 1989
| Rupert Christiansen
| Romantic Affinities
|
|
| Alan Hollingshurst
| The Swimming Pool Library
|
|
| Deirdre Madden
| The Birds of the Innocent Wood
|
| 1990
| Mark Hudson
| Our Grandmothers' Drums
|
|
| Sam North
| The Automatic Man
|
|
| Nicholas Shakespeare
| The Vision of Elena Silves
|
| 1991
| Peter Benson
| The Other Occupant
|
|
| Lesley Glaister
| Honour Thy Father
|
|
| Helen Simpson
| Four Bare Legs in a Bed
|
| 1992
| Geoff Dyer
| But Beautiful
|
|
| Lawrence Norfolk
| Lempriere's Dictionary
|
|
| Gerard Woodward
| Householder
|
| 1993
| Dea Birkett
| Jella
|
|
| Duncan McLean
| Bucket of Tongues
|
|
| Glyn Maxwell
| Out of the Rain
|
| 1994
| Jackie Kay
| Other Lovers
|
|
| A. L. Kennedy
| Looking For the Possible Dance
|
|
| Philip Marsden
| Crossing Place
|
| 1995
| Patrick French
| Younghusband
|
|
| Simon Garfield
| The End of Innocence
|
|
| Kathleen Jamie
| The Queen of Sheba
|
|
| Laura Thompson
| The Dogs
|
| 1996
| Katherine Pierpoint
| Truffle Beds
|
|
| Alan Warner
| Morvern Callar
|
| 1997
| Rhidian Brook
| The Testimony of Taliesin Jones
|
|
| Kate Clanchy
| Slattern
|
|
| Philip Hensher
| Kitchen Venom
|
|
| Francis Spufford
| I May Be Some Time
|
| 1998
| Rachel Cusk
| The Country Life
|
|
| Jonathan Rendall
| This Bloody Mary Is the Last Thing I Own
|
|
| Kate Summerscale
| The Queen of Whale Cay
|
|
| Robert Twigger
| Angry White Pyjamas
|
| 1999
| Andrea Ashworth
| Once in a House on Fire
|
|
| Paul Farley
| The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You
|
|
| Giles Foden
| The Last King of Scotland
|
|
| Jonathan Freedland
| Bring Home the Revolution
|
| 2000
| Bella Bathurst
| The Lighthouse Stevensons
|
|
| Sarah Waters
| Affinity
|
| 2001
| Edward Platt
| Leadville—A Biography of the A40
|
|
| Ben Rice
| Pobby And Dingan
|
| 2002
| Charlotte Hobson
| Black Earth City
|
|
| Marcel Theroux
| The Paperchase
|
| 2003
| William Fiennes
| The Snow Geese
|
|
| Hari Kunzru
| The Impressionist
|
|
| Jon McGregor
| If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things
|
| 2004
| Charlotte Mendelson
| Daughters of Jerusalem
|
|
| Mark Blayney
| Two Kinds of Silence
|
|
| Robert Macfarlane
| Mountains of the Mind
|