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Founded in 1963 as a memorial to the founder and first Chairman of the publishing firm Faber & Faber. The prize is awarded annually, alternating between recognizing a volume of verse and a volume of fiction (with occasionally more than one winner named). It is given to "that volume of verse or prose fiction first published originally in this country [the UK] during the two years preceding the year in which the award is given which is, in the opinion of the judges, of the greatest literary merit." The 1964 prize was for poetry.
The winner must be under 40 years of age and a citizen of the United Kingdom and colonies, the Commonwealth, or the Republic of Ireland or South Africa.
The three judges are reviewers nominated by editors or literary editors of newspapers and magazines which regularly review poetry and fiction. The value of the prize is £1000.
| 1964 | Christopher Middleton, Torse 3 Poems 1949-1961 George MacBeth, The Broken Places: Poems |
| 1965 | Frank Tuohy, The Ice Saints |
| 1966 | Jon Silkin, Nature Within Man |
| 1967 | William McIlvanney, Remedy is None John Noone, The Man with the Chocolate Egg |
| 1968 | Seamus Heaney, Death of a Naturalist |
| 1969 | Piers Paul Read, The Junkers |
| 1970 | Geoffrey Hill, King Log |
| 1971 | J G Farrell, Troubles |
| 1972 | Tony Harrison, The Loiners |
| 1973 | David Storey, Pasmore |
| 1974 | John Fuller, Cannibals and Missionaries and Epistles to Several Persons |
| 1975 | Richard Wright, In the Middle of a Life |
| 1976 | Douglas Dunn, Love or Nothing |
| 1977 | Carolyn Slaughter, The Story of the Weasel |
| 1978 | David Harsent, Dreams of the Dead Kit Wright, The Bear Looked Over the Mountain |
| 1979 | Timothy Mo, The Monkey King |
| 1980 | Hugo Williams, Love-Life George Szirtes, The Slant Door |
| 1981 | J M Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians |
| 1982 | Tom Paulin, Why Brownlee Left Paul Muldoon, The Strange Museum |
| 1983 | Graham Swift, Shuttlecock |
| 1984 | James Fenton, In Memory of War: Poems 1968-83 |
| 1985 | Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot |
| 1986 | David Scott, A Quiet Gathering |
| 1987 | Guy Vanderhaeghe, Man Descending |
| 1988 | Michael Hofmann, Acrimony: Poems |
| 1989 | David Profumo, Sea Music |
| 1990 | Michael Donaghy, Shibboleth |
| 1991 | Carol Birch, The Fog Line |
| 1992 | Paul Muldoon, Madoc: A Mystery |
| 1993 | Will Self, The Quantity Theory of Insanity |
| 1994 | John Burnside, Feast Days |
| 1995 | Livi Michael, Their Angel Reach |
| 1996 | Kathleen Jamie, The Queen of Sheba |
| 1997 | Emily Perkins, Not Her Real Name |
| 1998 | Don Paterson, God's Gift to Women |
| 1999 | Gavin Kramer, Shopping |
| 2000 | Kathleen Jamie, Jizzen |
| 2001 | Trezza Azzopardi, The Hiding Place |
| 2002 | Greta Stoddart, At Home in the Dark |
| 2003 | Justin Hill, The Drink and Dream Teahouse |
| 2004 | Glyn Maxwell, The Nerve: Poems |
| 2005 | David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas |
| 2006 | Alice Oswald, Woods Etc. |
| 2007 | Edward Docx, Self Help |
| 2008 | Nick Laird, On Purpose |
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