Simon Mawer scoops Walter Scott award
Author Simon Mawer has won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction - worth £25,000 - for his work Tightrope.
He was announced as the winner at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose at the weekend.
The other shortlisted writers were William Boyd, Patrick Gale, Gavin McCrea, Allan Massie and Lucy Treloar.
Judges described the winning book as "a spy story in the grand tradition" telling of the "harrowing life of a secret agent in World War Two".
"Impeccably researched, it perfectly inhabits its time and place," they said.
"It is a worthy winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction."