The Authors’ Club is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2025 Best First Novel Award is Ferdia Lennon’s Glorious Exploits (Fig Tree).
This year’s guest adjudicator, novelist Tracy Chevalier, presented the £2,500 award at a reception at the National Liberal Club in London on 21 May. She said:
“Glorious Exploits is a remarkable leap of the imagination into 4th-century BC Sicily, where two young potters have the madcap idea of directing Athenian prisoners in a Euripides play. Ferdia Lennon somehow manages to convince us he was there, with a distinctly Irish voice and style of storytelling. It is a funny, heartbreaking, confident debut, and a glorious triumph.”
Chevalier faced the daunting task of selecting a winner from a terrific shortlist that also included:
- All My Precious Madness, by Mark Bowles (Galley Beggar Press)
- The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley (Sceptre)
- The Borrowed Hills, by Scott Preston (John Murray)
- Hard by a Great Forest, by Leo Vardiashvili (Bloomsbury)
- Tiananmen Square, by Lai Wen (Swift Press)
The prize is for the debut novel of a British, Irish or UK-based author, first published in the UK. There is no age limit. The winning novel is selected by a guest adjudicator from a shortlist drawn up by a panel of Authors’ Club members, chaired by Lucy Popescu, who said, “An inventive, bittersweet novel about the power of the imagination. Lennon skilfully weaves the Irish vernacular into his tale; his imaginative characterisation and evocative descriptions are a joy.”
The Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award
Inaugurated in 1954, the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award is now in its 71st year, making it the longest-running UK prize for debut fiction and – except for the James Tait Black and the Hawthornden – the oldest literary prize in Britain.
Past winners have included Brian Moore, Alan Sillitoe, Paul Bailey, Gilbert Adair, Nadeem Aslam, Diran Adebayo, Jackie Kay, Susan Fletcher, Laura Beatty, Anthony Quinn, Kevin Barry, Ros Barber, Hisayo Rowan Buchanan, Gail Honeyman, Guy Gunaratne, Claire Adam, Ingrid Persaud, Tish Delaney and Ayanna Lloyd Banwo. Last year’s prize was awarded to Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow.
Past adjudicators have included Samira Ahmed, Louisa Young, Alex Wheatle, Andrew Miller, Louise Doughty, AL Kennedy, Vikram Seth, Philip Hensher, Joanne Harris, Deborah Moggach and, going back further, Kingsley Amis and Compton Mackenzie.
The Authors’ Club was established by Walter Besant in 1891, and has provided a social meeting place for writers for 133 years.
For further info on the award contact Chair of the judges: lucyjpop@gmail.com