The Authors' Club Best First Novel Award is awarded by the Authors' Club to the most promising first novel of the year, written by a British or Irish author and published in the UK during the calendar year preceding the year in which the award is presented.[1] Inaugurated in 1954, the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award is the longest-running UK prize for debut fiction and – except for the James Tait Black and the Hawthornden – the oldest literary prize in Britain.
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| Year | Author | Title | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1954 | David Unwin | The Governor's Wife | |
| 1955 | Brian Moore | Judith Hearne | |
| 1956 | Harry Bloom | Episode | |
| 1957 | Edmund Ward | Summer in Retreat | |
| 1958 | Alan Sillitoe | Saturday Night and Sunday Morning | |
| 1959 | David Caute | At Fever Pitch | |
| 1960 | Lionel Davidson | The Night of Wenceslas | |
| 1961 | Jim Hunter | The Sun in the Morning | |
| 1962 | John Pearson | Gone to Timbuctoo | |
| 1963 | David Rubin | The Greater Darkness | |
| 1964 | Robin Douglas-Home | Hot for Certainties | |
| 1965 | David James Mossman | Beggars on Horseback | |
| 1966 | Leslie Thomas | The Virgin Soldiers | |
| 1967 | Paul Bailey | At the Jerusalem | |
| 1968 | Barry England | Figures in a Landscape | |
| 1969 | Peter Tinniswood | A Touch of Daniel | |
| 1970 | Rachel Ingalls | Theft | |
| 1971 | Rosemary Hawley Jarman | We Speak No Treason | |
| 1973 | Jennifer Johnston | The Captains and the Kings | |
| 1975 | Sasha Moorsom | A Lavender Trip | |
| 1977 | Barbara Benson | The Underlings | |
| 1978 | Katharine Gordon | The Emerald Peacock | |
| 1979 | Martin Page | The Pilate Plot | |
| 1980 | Dawn Lowe-Watson | The Good Morrow | |
| 1981 | Anne Smith | The Magic Glass | |
| 1982 | Frances Vernon | Privileged Children | |
| 1983 | Katherine Moore | Summer at the Haven | |
| 1984 | Frederick R. Hyde-Chambers | Lama: A Novel of Tibet | |
| 1985 | Magda Sweetland | Eightsome Reel | |
| 1986 | Helen Harris | Playing Fields in Winter | |
| 1987 | Peter Benson | The Levels | |
| 1988 | Gilbert Adair | The Holy Innocents | |
| 1989 | Lindsey Davis | The Silver Pigs | [3] |
| 1990 | Alan Brownjohn | The Way You Tell Them | [4] |
| 1991 | Zina Rohan | The Book of Wishes and Complaints | [5] |
| 1992 | David Park | The Healing | [6] |
| 1993 | Nadeem Aslam | Season of the Rainbirds | [7] |
| 1994 | Andrew Cowan | Pig | |
| 1995 | T. J. Armstrong | Walter and the Resurrection of G | |
| 1996 | Diran Adebayo | Some Kind of Black | |
| Rhidian Brook | The Testimony of Taliesin Jones | ||
| 1997 | Mick Jackson | The Underground Man | |
| 1998 | Jackie Kay | Trumpet | |
| 1999 | Ann Harries | Manly Pursuits | |
| 2000 | Brian Clarke | The Stream | [8] |
| 2001 | Carl Tighe | Burning Worm | [9] |
| 2002 | Ben Facini | The Water Breather | |
| 2003 | Dan Rhodes | Timoleon Vieta Come Home | [10] |
| 2004 | Susan Fletcher | Eve Green | [11] |
| 2004 | Neil Griffiths | Betrayal in Naples | |
| 2005 | Henry Shukman | Sandstorm | [12] |
| 2006 | Nicola Monaghan | The Killing Jar | [13] |
| 2007 | Segun Afolabi | Goodbye Lucille | [14] |
| 2009 | Laura Beatty | Pollard | [15] |
| 2010 | Anthony Quinn | The Rescue Man | [16][17] |
| 2011 | Jonathan Kemp | London Triptych | |
| 2012 | Kevin Barry | City of Bohane | |
| 2013 | Ros Barber | The Marlowe Papers | |
| I. J. Kay | Mountains of the Moon | ||
| 2014 | Jack Wolf | The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones | |
| 2015 | Carys Bray | A Song for Issy Bradley | |
| 2016 | Benjamin Johncock | The Last Pilot | |
| 2017 | Rowan Hisayo Buchanan | Harmless Like You | |
| 2018 | Gail Honeyman | Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine | |
| 2019 | Guy Gunaratne | In Our Mad and Furious City | [18] |
| 2020 | Claire Adam | Golden Child | [19] |
| 2021 | Ingrid Persaud | Love After Love | [20] |
| 2022 | Tish Delaney | Before My Actual Heart Breaks | [21] |
| 2023 | Ayanna Lloyd Banwo | When We Were Birds | [22] |
| 2024 | Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow | All the Little Bird-Hearts | [23] |
| 2025 | Ferdia Lennon | Glorious Exploits |
