We’re delighted to announce the winners of the 2024 HWA Crown Awards, celebrating the best in recent historical writing, fiction and non-fiction!
The winners of the Gold Crown for fiction, the Non-fiction Crown and the Debut Crown were revealed on Wednesday, 20 November at an awards party at St Ethelburga’s Centre in Bishopsgate.
We’d like to thank the authors and publishers for their submissions. Historical writing is going from strength to strength, and covers increasingly diverse and imaginative topics, as this year’s entries convincingly demonstrate.
We’re also extremely grateful to this year’s judges for their dedication and hard work. Reading so many books is a big commitment, and choosing between them is perhaps even harder work.
The winners of the HWA Gold, Non-fiction and Debut Crown Awards, out of an impressive list, are:
The HWA Gold Crown Award 2024
The winner of the 2024 Gold Crown Award
Disobedient by Elizabeth Fremantle
The Gold Crown judges said: “The masterful telling of a formative period in the life of artist Artemisia Gentileschi. Vivid in detail, this is a brilliant example of the power of historical fiction.”
The shortlisted books for the Gold Crown were:
The Glutton by AK Blakemore (Granta)
Clear by Carys Davies (Granta)
You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue, translated by Natasha Wimmer (Harvill Secker)
Disobedient by Elizabeth Fremantle (Penguin)
A Woman of Pleasure by Kiyoko Murata, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter (Footnote Press)
Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford (Faber and Faber)
The HWA Gold Crown Award judges are: Louise Hare (chair), Amy McElroy, Clare McHugh, Matthew Plampin, Alison Joseph, Tom Mogford, Emma Corfield Walters and Liz Vater.
The HWA Non-fiction Crown Award 2024
The winner of the 2024 Non-fiction Crown Award
Four Shots In the Night: A True Story of Stakeknife, Murder and Justice in Northern Ireland by Henry Hemming
The judging panel said: “An even-handed and scrupulous uncovering of the true scale of British intelligence operations in Northern Ireland from the start of the Troubles to the Good Friday Agreement. The all-too human stories — on both sides — highlight the moral dilemmas inherent in the search for peace. Reads like a thriller!”
The shortlisted books for the Non-fiction Crown were:
Final Verdict: A Holocaust Trial in the Twenty-first Century by Tobias Buck (W&N)
The Shoulders We Stand On: How Black and Brown People Fought for Change in the United Kingdom by Preeti Dhillon (Dialogue Books)
Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade by Hannah Durbin (William Collins)
Four Shots In the Night: A True Story of Stakeknife, Murder and Justice in Northern Ireland by Henry Hemming (Quercus)
Agincourt: Battle of the Scarred King by Michael Livingston (Osprey)
The Picnic: An Escape to Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain by Matthew Longo (Bodley Head)
The judges for the 2024 Non-fiction Crown Award are: Isabelle Grey (chair), Nathen Amin, Pete Brown, Jacqueline Riding and Annie Whitehead.
The HWA Debut Crown Award 2024
The winner of the 2024 Debut Crown Award
The Tumbling Girl by Bridget Walsh
Our judges said: “Recreates all the atmosphere of a Victorian music hall. Gripping plot and a clever insight into the world of the dark theatrical underworld.”
The shortlisted books for the Non-fiction Crown were:
The Golden Gate by Amy Chua (Corvus)
The Maiden by Kate Foster (Pan)
The Painter’s Daughters by Emily Howes (Phoenix)
The Revels by Stacey Thomas (HQ)
The Beholders by Hester Musson (Fourth Estate)
The Tumbling Girl by Bridget Walsh (Gallic)
The judges for the 2024 Debut Crown Award are Ayo Onatade (chair), Dan Bassett and Susan Heads.
HWA Chair Imogen Robertson commented: “We were delighted that so many publishers submitted books to the Crown Awards this year and are very grateful for their support. It’s wonderful to see the rich range of historical fiction being published in the UK.
“Once again our judges were extraordinarily hard working, offering their time and expertise to select the long and shortlists and make some very difficult decisions in the process. Every book that was long- and shortlisted is an excellent read, offering new insights about the past and compelling storytelling, be they fiction or non-fiction. I encourage all history and literature lovers to dive in.
“And huge, huge congratulations to the winners for taking the crowns in another highly competitive year.”
We’ll be publishing interviews with the Crown Award-winning authors in Historia over the next few weeks.
See more about the 18 books shortlisted and 36 books longlisted for the awards this year.
The HWA Crown Awards for 2025 will be open for entries in the Spring. We’ll announce details nearer the time. The likely closing date will be 30 April, 2025.
The awards party
We announced the awards at a party held to celebrate the HWA Crown Awards and HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition winners. I’ll be updating this page with photos from the event soon.
