Alice Jolly wins 2026 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

UK author Alice Jolly has won the £25,000 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for her novel The Matchbox Girl (Bloomsbury), reports the Bookseller.

The Matchbox Girl tells the story of Adelheid Brunner, a patient of Dr Hans Asperger in the now-infamous Vienna Children’s Hospital during the 1930s, while the city is under Nazi occupation.

Judges said, “Originality, innovation, ambition, The Matchbox Girl not only more than fulfils the judging criteria for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, it confronts a topic of immense complexity in a gripping tour de force. With the skill of a cubist painter, Alice Jolly has altered the angle from which events in Vienna in 1934, and particularly in the Vienna Children’s Hospital, are observed, and a story we think we know is disrupted by a heroine who is speechless yet speaks with disturbing energy. The Matchbox Girl may be the most unusual book you read this year. For its honesty, power and storytelling dexterity, our 2026 winner will also be one of the most important.”

The winner was selected from a shortlist of 5 books that, for the first time, comprised only British authors. To qualify for the award, books must have been written in English, should be largely set more than 60 years ago, and must have been published during 2025 in the UK, Ireland or the Commonwealth.

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