Paul Torday Memorial Prize

Paul Torday published his first novel Salmon Fishing in the Yemen aged 60. The family have decided to set up this new prize in Torday’s honour, celebrating first novels by authors aged 60 or over.

The winner will receive £3,000, with a set of Paul Torday’s collected works. Runners-up will receive £1,000 and one specially selected Paul Torday novel with a commemorative book plate. The prize is indebted to W & N Fiction for generously providing these books by Paul Torday.

The 2024 Paul Torday Prize will close for submissions on 30 November 2023.

The winner will receive £3,000, with a set of Paul Torday's collected works. Runners-up will receive £1,000 and one specially selected Paul Torday novel.

DEADLINE: WEDNESDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2023

Criteria for entry

1. The novel must have been first published in the UK and Republic of Ireland between 1 September 2022 and 31 August 2023. Print publication dates will be used for all eligibility.
2. The novel must be a full length work by a living author.
3. The book must be in the English language and cannot be a translated work.
4. The novel must be the author’s first published full length fiction work, but they can have had works published of other lengths or other genres in the past.
5. The author(s) must be aged 60 or over at the date of first print publication of the novel and living at the date of submission. In the event that the author is shortlisted, they may be asked to provide proof of age.
6. There are no residence or nationality restrictions.
7. We cannot accept books that are only available in e-format or that are self-published or where the author has contributed or paid for the costs of publishing.
8. Submissions must be made by the print publisher.
7. All submissions must have been written by the author and cannot contain the use of AI generated works.

Conditions of entry

Present employees (or anyone currently connected with the administration of the Society of Authors’ grants and prizes) or members of the SoA Management Committee may not apply for any of the grants and prizes administered by the Society of Authors.

The decision of the judges is final and they reserve the right not to award the Prize if, in their opinion, no works entered reach a sufficiently high standard. Judges may call in books if they so wish.

It is a condition of entry that publishers will put the award logo or “Winner of the Paul Torday Memorial Prize 2024” or “Shortlisted for the Paul Torday Memorial Prize 2024”, on the cover of subsequent editions of winning/shortlisted books. We have designed roundels with this information on them if you’d like to use those.

The prize will be awarded at the annual Society of Authors' Awards ceremony in 2024. For any queries, please email [email protected].

How to enter

Once the following form is completed please send FIVE copies (non-returnable) of the published book or publisher's proof (bound or unbound) to:

The Paul Torday Prize,
Prizes department,
The Society of Authors,
24 Bedford Row,
London,
WC1R 4EH.

Please note that couriers should use the entrance on Theobalds Road.

Please also upload a digital version of the book when prompted below. If the file you are using is too large for the form, please complete the rest of the entry form and then send the file via email or WeTransfer to [email protected].

Name of person submitting *

First

Last

Job title of the person submitting *

Submissions must be made by the print publisher

Email of person submitting *

Name of author *

First

Last

Title of book *

Date of publication *

The novel must have been first published in the UK and Republic of Ireland between 1 September 2022 and 31 August 2023.

Name of publisher and imprint *

We cannot accept books that are only available in e-format or that are self-published or where the author has contributed or paid for the costs of publishing.

Author's date of birth *

Entrants must be over the age of 40 on 31 October 2023

In the case of multiple authors: dates of birth of additional authors

Please leave blank if not applicable

Author's email *

Author biography *

Please write a short bio. This may typically include recent publications, the name, date, and details of previous prizes won, education, training, and career background, and pronouns.

Upload your entry:

Click or drag a file to this area to upload.

Please upload a digital PDF version of the book. If the file is too large for the form please email it to [email protected] quoting the prize name and book title in the subject line.

Eligibility Confirmation *

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I agree to abide by the conditions of entry. I confirm that the author and novel meet the criteria for entry as detailed above.

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Where did you hear about this prize? *

The 2023 Paul Torday Winner

Bonnie Garmus for Lessons in Chemistry published by Doubleday, Penguin Random House UK

‘It’s difficult to believe that Lessons in Chemistry is Bonnie Garmus’s first novel. Her central character, Elizabeth Zott, springs off the page and confronts us such wit and authority that she seems always to have existed somewhere between Southern California and the land of wishful thinking. Zott takes the starring role in this delicious tale of the proto-feminist revenge.’
—Andrew Taylor, 2023 Paul Torday judge.

The 2023 Paul Torday Runner-Up:

Julie Owen Moylan for That Green Eyed Girl published by Penguin Random House UK

The 2023 Paul Torday Prize Shortlist:

Reverend Richard Coles for Murder Before Evensong published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Tony Curtis for Darkness in the City of Light published by Seren Books

Jonathan Franklin for Red Road Green published by Sparsile Books Ltd

If you are interested in buying any of the books shortlisted here, please visit Bookshop.org. A percentage of each sale will go to the Authors’ Contingency Fund, providing hardship grants to authors in financial difficulty.

With thanks, the judges of the 2023 Paul Torday Memorial Prize:

Rasheda Ashanti Malcom

Rasheda Ashanti Malcolm writes novels and women’s romantic fiction. Her first novel, Swimming With Fishes was published in 2017 and their second, Love Again, in 2020.She is now working on her third novel, with a fourth in the pipeline and a non-fiction book, her first non-fiction, which is aimed at first-time writers and women who want to write but can’t find the motivation or inspiration.

Kathy O’Shaughnessy

Kathy O’Shaughnessy was educated at Camden School for Girls. She went on to study English at Oxford, where she gained a first, and won the Thackeray Prize and Violet Vaughan Morgan Prize. She began an M-Phil on Byron, but gave it up to review books for Time Out, New Society, and The Spectator. She went on to work as Deputy Editor on The Literary Review, Arts & Books Editor of Vogue, Literary Editor of The European, Deputy Editor of The Telegraph Arts & Books. She has reviewed books for The Guardian, The Times, The Financial Times, The Observer, The Independent, The Telegraph, The TLS, New Statesman, and numerous other publications. Her short stories have been published in Faber’s First Fictions, and she edited and introduced the Croatian Drago Stambuk’s poems, Incompatible Animals. In Love with George Eliot is her first novel, published by Scribe. It was featured on Radio 4’s Open Book and it won the Society of Author’s Paul Torday Memorial Prize.

Andrew Taylor

Andrew Taylor is a bestselling crime and historical novelist, and the winner of the Diamond Dagger of the Crime Writers Association, the Gold Crown of the Historical Writers Association and many other awards. He has written nearly fifty books, listed here, three of which have been televised.

2023

Winner: Bonnie Garmus for Lessons in Chemistry (Doubleday, Penguin Random House)
Runner-up: Julie Owen Moylan for That Green Eyed Girl (Penguin Random House)

2022

Winner: Jane Fraser for Advent (Honno: Welsh Women’s Press)
Runner-up: Michael Mallon for The Disciple (Zuleika)

2021

Kathy O’Shaughnessy for In Love with George Eliot (Scribe UK)
Runner-up: Karen Raney for All the Water in the World (John Murray, Two Roads)

2020

Donald S. Murray for As the Women Lay Dreaming (Saraband)
Runner-up: Gaby Koppel for Reparation (Honno Press)

2019

Anne Youngson for Meet Me at the Museum (Doubleday)
Runner-up: Norma MacMaster for Silence Under a Stone (Doubleday Ireland)

Paul Torday

Paul Torday (1946 – 2013) was a businessman and author of nine books. His first novel, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2007), was an immediate international bestseller, later made into a film starring Ewan MacGregor and Emily Blunt. His fiction has been translated into twenty-eight languages and won several awards, including the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. The Paul Torday Memorial Prize was founded by his family in his honour.

Hawthornden Foundation

Hawthornden Foundation is a private charitable foundation supporting contemporary writers and the literary arts. Established by Drue Heinz, the noted philanthropist and patron of the arts, the Foundation is named after Hawthornden Castle in Midlothian, Scotland, where an international residential fellowship program provides month-long retreats for creative writers from all disciplines to work in peaceful surroundings. In addition, the Foundation sponsors the annual Hawthornden Prize, one of Britain’s oldest and foremost literary awards, and provides grant support to other literary programs.