On Thursday 19th September, we were thrilled to host the 2024 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize Awards Reception. With bubbles in hand, authors, agents, publishers, readers, judges, volunteers, and friends gathered to discover the winners of the Best Published Novel, New Voices, and Author of Tomorrow awards. Our thanks to the team at Stonehage Fleming for supporting us. 

We enjoyed insightful speeches from one of this year's judges, Matt Barr, writer, editor, podcaster, who shared his thoughts on the judging process and his own experiences of adventure; Sarah Benton, Managing Director of Adult Trade at Bonnier Books UK, who support our New Voices programme, spoke about the importance of nurturing emerging writers; author Steve Cole entertained us with his weird and wonderful progression from childhood writer to bestselling author; and last year’s winner and 2024 judge, author Emma Styles, inspired us with her reflections on her own journey.

Congratulations to our winners and all those shortlisted, and thank you to everyone involved in making this year’s Prize a success. We can’t wait to see what adventures next year will bring! 

To find out more about the 2024 shortlists and winners, click here. 

All photographs ©Seb Higgins Photography. 

Please contact Charlotte if you would like a high-resolution copy of any of the photographs above.