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Founded by Mrs. Janet Coats Black in memory of her late husband; Mrs. Black's endowment is now supplemented by the Scottish Arts Council. The winner is chosen by the Professor of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh; there is an award for the best work of biography as well as for the best work of fiction--in each case, published in the English language in the United Kingdom--during the previous year. The value of each is £3,000.
| 1920 | Hugh Walpole The Secret City |
| 1921 | D. H. Lawrence The Lost Girl |
| 1922 | Walter de la Mare Memoirs of a Midget |
| 1923 | David Garnett Lady Into Fox |
| 1924 | Arnold Bennett Riceyman Steps |
| 1925 | E. M. Forster A Passage to India |
| 1926 | Liam O'Flaherty The Informer |
| 1927 | Radcliffe Hall Adam's Breed |
| 1928 | Francis Brett Young The Portrait of Clare |
| 1929 | Siegried Sassoon Memoirs of a Foxhunting Man |
| 1930 | J. B. Priestley The Good Companions |
| 1931 | E. H. Young Miss Mole |
| 1932 | Kate O'Brien Without My Cloak |
| 1933 | Helen Simpson Boomerang |
| 1934 | A. G. Macdonnell England, Their England |
| 1935 | Robert Graves I, Claudius and Claudius the God |
| 1936 | L. H. Myers The Root and the Flower |
| 1937 | Winifred Holtby South Riding |
| 1938 | Neil M. Gunn Highland River |
| 1939 | C. S. Forester A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours |
| 1940 | Aldous Huxley After Many a Summer Dies the Swan |
| 1941 | Charles Morgan The Voyage |
| 1942 | Joyce Cary A House of Children |
| 1943 | Arthur Waley Translation of Monkey by Wu Ch'êng-ên |
| 1944 | Mary Lavin Tales from Bective Bridge |
| 1945 | Forrest Reid Young Tom |
| 1946 | L. A. G. Strong Travellers |
| 1947 | Oliver Onions Poor Man's Tapestry |
| 1948 | L. P. Hartley Eustace and Hilda |
| 1949 | Graham Greene The Heart of the Matter |
| 1950 | Emma Smith The Far Cry |
| 1951 | Robert Henriquez Through the Valley |
| 1952 | W. C. Chapman-Mortimer Father Goose |
| 1953 | Evelyn Waugh Men at Arms |
| 1954 | Margaret Kennedy Troy Chimneys |
| 1955 | C. P. Snow The Men and the Masters |
| 1956 | Ivy Compton-Burnett Mother and Son |
| 1957 | Rose Macauley The Towers of Trebizond |
| 1958 | Anthony Powell At Lady Molly's |
| 1959 | Angus Wilson The Middle Age of Mrs. Eliot |
| 1960 | Rex Warner Imperial Caesar |
| 1961 | Jennifer Dawson The Ha-Ha |
| 1962 | Ronald Hardy Act of Destruction |
| 1963 | Gerda Charles A Slanting Light |
| 1964 | Frank Tuohy The Ice Saints |
| 1965 | Muriel Spark The Mandelbaum Gate |
| 1966 | Christine Brooke-Rose Such,
and Aidan Higgins Langrishe, Go Down |
| 1967 | Margaret Drabble Jerusalem The Golden |
| 1968 | Maggie Ross The Gasteropod |
| 1969 | Elizabeth Bowen Eva Trout |
| 1970 | Lily Powell The Bird of Paradise |
| 1971 | Nadine Gordimer A Guest of Honour |
| 1972 | John Berger G |
| 1983 | Iris Murdoch The Black Prince |
| 1974 | Lawrence Durrell Monsieur, or the Prince of Darkness |
| 1975 | Brian Moore The Great Victorian Collection |
| 1976 | John Banville Doctor Copernicus |
| 1977 | John Le Carré The Honourable Schoolboy |
| 1978 | Maurice Gee Plumb |
| 1979 | William Golding Darkness Visible |
| 1980 | J. M. Coetzee Waiting for the Barbarians |
| 1981 | Salman Rushdie
Midnight's Children, and Paul Theroux The Mosquito Coast |
| 1982 | Bruce Chatwin On the Black Hill |
| 1983 | Jonathan Keates Allegro Postillions |
| 1984 | J. G. Ballard
Empire of the Sun, and Angela Carter Nights at the Circus |
| 1985 | Robert Edric Winter Garden |
| 1986 | Jenny Joseph Persephone |
| 1987 | George Mackay Brown The Golden Bird: Two Orkney Stories |
| 1988 | Piers Paul Read A Season in the West |
| 1989 | James Kelman A Disaffection |
| 1990 | William Boyd Brazzaville Beach |
| 1991 | Iain Sinclair Downriver |
| 1992 | Rose Tremain Sacred Country |
| 1993 | Caryl Phillips Crossing the River |
| 1994 | Alan Hollinghurst The Folding Star |
| 1995 | Christopher Priest The Prestige |
| 1996 | Graham Swift
Last Orders, and Alice Thompson Justine |
| 1997 | Andrew Miller Ingenious Pain |
| 1998 | Beryl Bainbridge, Master Georgie |
| 1999 | Timothy Mo, Renegade, or Halo2 |
| 2000 | Zadie Smith, White Teeth |
| 2001 | Sid Smith, Something Like a House |
| 2002 | Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections |
| 2003 | Andrew O'Hagan, Personality |
| 2004 | David Peace, GB84 |
| 2005 | Ian McEwan, Saturday |
| 2006 | Cormac McCarthy, The Road |
Follow this link to the University of Edinburgh Department of English
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