Books by Benjamin Wood
“Before reading this novel, I wonder how many had heard of shanking—scraping the sea bottom at low-tide for shrimp—let alone thought about the life of a shanker. Yet readers won’t easily forget Thomas Flett, aged 20, a boy who dreams of singing a song yet is in thrall to both the scraping of the sea and the scraping around for money to keep himself, his old seascraper horse and his coquettish mother in good heart. If you haven’t yet read this little book, you’re in for a treat.” Read more...
The Best Historical Fiction of 2026
Katharine Grant, Historical Novelist
Interviews where books by Benjamin Wood were recommended
The Best Historical Fiction of 2026, recommended by Katharine Grant
Every year, the judges for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction make a shortlist of the best new historical novels published over the previous twelve months. We spoke to Katharine Grant, prize judge and highly acclaimed author, about the five books that made the 2026 shortlist—from a “haunting and haunted” tale of triple murder on a Scottish island to a “gloriously told” reimagining of real-life intrigue during England’s Wars of the Roses.
