Debut author Harry Shukman has won the £10,000 Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award, the most influential prize for young writers in the UK and Ireland, for Year of the Rat. A shocking, eye-opening account of his time spent infiltrating British far-right groups, Shukman reveals how they operate, who they are and how they normalise extreme ideologies.
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, Harry Shukman is now a researcher at HOPE not hate, an anti-fascist organisation. From canvassing with Britain First to befriending Holocaust deniers, neo-Nazis and a Silicon Valley-backed race-science organisation, Shukman again and again risked his safety and sanity to remove the far right’s terrifyingly everyday mask. Judge Esther Freud said: “Year of the Rat reads like the perfect thriller. Nail bitingly tense, darkly funny, unexpectedly compassionate and urgently important.”
The judges chose Harry Shukman from an exceptional shortlist of four authors, described by Johanna Thomas-Corr as “courageous and defiantly outward looking.” The Greatest Possible Good (Scribner UK), Ben Brooks’ comic novel, is a hilarious, human family saga about a father’s decision to become a good man; Gurnaik Johal was shortlisted for Saraswati (Serpent’s Tail), a magisterial debut that deftly animates the passions that bind us to our histories, our lands and each other; and Liadan Ní Chuinn, for their debut short story collection Every One Still Here (Granta Books), in which they expertly blend the personal and the political in their unforgettable stories of pain, faith, forgiveness and the legacy of the Troubles.
The announcement was made at a live ceremony in east London by Johanna Thomas-Corr, Chief Literary Critic for The Times and Sunday Times, alongside Sebastian Faulks, Chair of the Charlotte Aitken Trust.
Shukman will join an illustrious list of former winners, including Sally Rooney, Tom Crewe, Zadie Smith, Max Porter, Robert Macfarlane, Raymond Antrobus, Harriet Baker, Sarah Waters, Simon Armitage, Naomi Alderman and Jay Bernard.
Sponsored by the Charlotte Aitken Trust since 2021, the award is given annually to the best work of fiction, nonfiction
or poetry by a British or Irish author of 35 or under.
Judge Caleb Femi said: “Harry Shukman’s Year of the Rat stood out for the sheer tension and narrative drive it sustains throughout. It reads at times with the suspense of a thriller, yet never loses its intellectual clarity or moral seriousness. The book draws you deep inside a hidden world and holds you there, asking urgent questions about extremism, belonging, and how easily people can be pulled toward dangerous ideologies.”
Judge Sathnam Sanghera said: “The rise of the far-right is one of big gest and most challenging stories around, and Harry tells it with clarity, compassion and humour. There are episodes in the book that could be set pieces in a fine novel, they really stay with you. And I found his personal bravery humbling and inspiring – so many writers have been retreating in the face of a difficult world, but this book reminds us what we should do. We should face the world without flinching, and account for the complexity and pain before us.”
Judge Esther Freud said: ”Year of the Rat reads like the perfect thriller. Nail bitingly tense, darkly funny, unexpectedly compassionate and urgently important. I was caught up with it from the first page.”
Judge Graham Norton said: ”I thought I knew what this book was going to be but it confounded my expectations. Brave and humane, Harry Shukman delivers a nuanced and insightful portrait of a world many of us would prefer not to see.”
Judge Lea Ypi said: “Boldly and bravely, Shukman achieves something only the best novels manage. He sits with far right activists long enough to understand them, and in doing so, makes the movement far more frightening and far more human than any polemic ever could.”
Waterstones Non-Fiction Buyer, John Cotterill, said: “The Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award has long been a touchstone of excellence. Past winners, such as Robert Macfarlane, Max Porter and Sally Rooney, have gone on to enjoy stellar literary careers and have become firm favourites with Waterstones’s customers and booksellers alike. We’re delighted to see Harry Shukman win. Year of the Rat is a bold and vital piece of investigative journalism, written in gripping prose. We look forward to sharing it in our shops and are excited to
see where this talented author goes next.”
All four shortlisted authors spoke to Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo at a special event at the Barbican Centre the night before the ceremony, as part of a new partnership for the award.