Hear authors Gavin McCrea, Patrick Gale, Allan Massie, Simon Mawer and Lucy Treloar talk about their fantastic historical novels that have earned them a place on the 2016 Walter Scott Prize shortlist.
In Gavin McCrea's stunning debut novel, we follow Lizzie Burns, a poor worker from the Irish slums and the common law wife of Friedrich Engels, co-author of The Communist Manifesto. As the promise of an easy existence in the capital slips from her view, she gains in its place a profound understanding of herself and of the world. While Frederick and his friend Karl Marx try to spur revolution among the working classes, Lizzie is compelled to undertake a revolution of another kind: of the heart and the soul. Haunted by her first love, a revolutionary Irishman; burdened by a sense of duty to right past mistakes; and torn between a desire for independence and the pragmatic need to be taken care of, Lizzie learns, as she says, that 'the world doesn't happen how you think it will. The secret is to soften to it, and to take its blows.'
Mrs Engels has been shortlisted for The Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction. The prize was founded in 2009, and honours the achievements and legacy of Sir Walter Scott, the founding father of the historical novel. The prize is the first book award to recognise outstanding work in this burgeoning genre.
The winner will be announced at The Borders Book Festival on the 18th June 2016.
