Granta Best of Young British Novelists

Christchurch City Libraries lists literary prize winners and links to catalogue searches, but we may not hold copies of all titles mentioned.

Every decade British literary magazine Granta produces a list of Britain's best young novelists. The list was the brainchild of Desmond Clarke, who ran the Book Marketing Council in the early 1980s. Bill Buford, then editor of Granta, who devoted an issue to the list, decided to repeat the process himself in 1993.

In 2003, the judges were Ian Jack, editor of Granta; Robert McCrum, The Observer's literary editor; Hilary Mantel, novelist and critic; Nicholas Clee, editor of the Bookseller; and Alex Clark, fiction reviewer for the Guardian and London Review of Books.

The 2013 list was selected by John Freeman, the editor of Granta, llah Allfrey and Sigrid Rausing – Deputy Editor and Publisher of Granta respectively; critic Stuart Kelly, novelists Romesh Gunesekera and A. L. Kennedy, and Gaby Wood, the Telegraph’s head of books.

Authors selected for the list are typically under 40 years of age. In 2023 the criteria was changed to include not only writers with a British passport but also those who "regard [Britain] as their home".

See other literary prize winners we list.

2023

2013

2003

1993

1983

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