The Authors’ Club is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2026
Best First Novel Award is Christina Fonthes’s Where You Go, I Will Go (Tinder Press)
This year’s guest adjudicator, the biographer, historian and journalist Anne Sebba, presented the £2,500 award at a reception at the National Liberal Club in London on 20 May. She said:
“This is a complicated family saga sweeping across generations, continents and identities. It’s ambitious in its breadth and scope with both a strong narrative drive and tension, taking the reader into new worlds. I found it especially compelling around issues of immigration and challenges of making a new life, as well as family dynamics. Mother/daughter relationships were deeply touching and of course troubling. It is a novel full of riches.”
Sebba faced the daunting task of selecting a winner from a terrific shortlist that also included:
Cloudless by Rupert Dastur (Fig Tree)
The Fisherman’s Gift by Julia Kelly (Harvill Secker)
Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen (Faber)
Shibboleth by Thomas Peermohamed Lambert (Europa Editions)
The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis (Hutchinson Heinemann)
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:
“Christina Fonthes navigates love, religion, misogyny, homophobia and the enduring impact of trauma in her captivating and tender debut. The novel is deftly plotted, gathering tension as it moves towards its dramatic denouement.”
The Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award
Inaugurated in 1954, the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award is now in its 72nd 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, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo and Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow. Last year’s prize was awarded to Ferdia Lennon.
Past adjudicators have included Tracy Chevalier, 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 135 years.
For further info on the award, contact the Chair of Judges: lucyjpop@gmail.com