1996

A Spell of Winter - 1996 Winner

Helen Dunmore

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Small Island – 2004 Winner

Andrea Levy

It is 1948, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun. Queenie Bligh’s neighbours do not approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but Queenie doesn’t know when her husband will return, or if he will come back at all. What else can she do?

Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler. Returning to England as a civilian he finds himself treated very differently. It’s desperation that makes him remember a wartime friendship with Queenie and knock at her door.

Gilbert’s wife Hortense, too, had longed to leave Jamaica and start a better life in England. But when she joins him she is shocked to find London shabby, decrepit, and far from the golden city of her dreams. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was…

"Winning the Prize felt like a recognition, from that very society, that massively boosted her confidence and widened her ambition "

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2004 Shortlist

The Colour

Rose Tremain

Ice Road

Gillian Slovo

The Great Fire

Shirley Hazzard

Oryx and Crake

Margaret Atwood

Purple Hibiscus

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Small Island - 2004 Winner

Andrea Levy

2004 Longlist

GILGAMESH

Joan London

THE FLOOD

Maggie Gee

KITH AND KIN

Steve Davies

The Great Fire

Shirley Hazzard

THE AMATEUR MARRIAGE

Anne Tyler

THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE

Audrey Niffenegger

LOVE

Toni Morrison

THE INTERNATIONALS

Sarah May

A VISIT FROM VOLTAIRE

Dinah Küng

THE NAMESAKE

Jhumpa Lahiri

NOTES ON A SCANDAL

Zoë Heller

THE ELECTRIC MICHELANGELO

Sarah Hall

STATE OF HAPPINESS

Stella Duffy

THE SARI SHOP

Rupa Bajwa

BRICK LANE

Monica Ali