Shukman wins 2025 Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award

In the UK, debut author Harry Shukman has won the £10,000 (A$19,224) Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award for Year of the Rat (Vintage), a “shocking, eye-opening account of his time spent infiltrating British far-right groups”.

Judges Caleb Femi, Esther Freud, Graham Norton, Sathnam Sanghera and Lea Ypi joined chair of judges, Johanna Thomas-Corr, who said: “Year of the Rat is that rare thing: investigative journalism with the nerve of a thriller and the wit of a great piece of reportage. By going undercover among Britain’s far-right networks, Harry Shukman reveals a world that is by turns sinister, absurd and frighteningly close to the mainstream. It’s courageous, sharply observed and very timely – exactly the kind of bold work the prize exists to celebrate.”

A former news reporter, Shukman is now a researcher at HOPE not hate, an anti-fascist organisation. The author’s debut was chosen from a shortlist of 4 titles, which also included The Greatest Possible Good (Ben Brooks, Scribner UK), Saraswati (Gurnaik Johal, Serpent’s Tail), and Every One Still Here (Liadan Ní Chuinn, Granta).

The winner of the 2024 award was Harriet Baker for Rural Hours (Penguin), a biography of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Rosamond Lehmann.

Category: International awards International news