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Created and endowed in 1947 by Somerset Maugham to enable British authors under the age of 35 to enrich their writing by spending time abroad, the Somerset Maugham Award may be best known for its being given to Kingsley Amis--who famously disliked foreign travel and used the money to write a book called I Like It Here--in 1955, for Lucky Jim, which Maugham had reviewed, pronouncing its author "scum." It is administered by the Society of Authors; recently there have been several winners each year, each of whom receives £3500 (This figure has now been increased to £5000.) The awards are not limited to fiction, though dramatic works are excluded from consideration.
| 1947 | A. L. Barker | Innocents |
| 1948 | P. H. Newby | Journey to the Interior |
| 1949 | Hamish Henderson | Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica |
| 1950 | Nigel Kneale | Tomato Cain & Other Stories |
| 1951 | Roland Camberton | Scamp |
| 1952 | Francis King | The Dividing Stream |
| 1953 | Emyr Humphreys | Hear and Forgive |
| 1954 | Doris Lessing | Five Short Novels |
| 1955 | Kingsley Amis | Lucky Jim |
| 1956 | Elizabeth Jennings | A Way of Looking |
| 1957 | George Lamming | In the Castle of My Skin |
| 1959 | Thom Gunn | A Sense of Movement |
| 1960 | Ted Hughes | The Hawk in the Rain |
| 1961 | V. S. Naipaul | Miguel Street |
| 1962 | Hugh Thomas | The Spanish Civil War |
| 1963 | David Storey | Flight Into Camden |
| 1964 | Dan Jacobson John Le Carre |
Time of Arrival The Spy Who Came In From the Cold |
| 1965 | Peter Everett | Negatives |
| 1966 | Michael Frayn Julian Mitchell |
The Tin Men The White Father |
| 1967 | B. S. Johnson Andrew Sinclair |
Trawl The Better Half |
| 1968 | Paul Bailey Seamus Heaney |
At the Jerusalem Death of a Naturalist |
| 1969 | Angela Carter | Several Perceptions |
| 1970 | Jane Gaskell Piers Paul Read |
A Sweet Sweet Summer Monk Dawson |
| 1971 | Susan Hill Richard Barber Michael Hastings |
I'm the King of the Castle The Knight and Chivalry Tussy Is Me |
| 1972 | Douglas Dunn Gillian Tindall |
Terry Street Fly Away Home |
| 1973 | Peter Prince Paul Strathern Jonathan Street |
Play Things A Season in Abyssinia Prudence Dictates |
| 1974 | Martin Amis | The Rachel Papers |
| 1975 |
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| 1976 | Dominic Cooper Ian McEwan |
The Dead of Winter First Love, Last Rites |
| 1977 | Richard Holmes | Shelley: The Pursuit |
| 1978 | Tom Paulin Nigel Williams |
A State of Justice My Life Closed Twice |
| 1979 | Helen Hodgman Sara Maitland |
Jack & Jill Daughter of Jerusalem |
| 1980 | Max Hastings Christopher Reid Humphrey Carpenter |
Bomber Command Arcadia The Inklings |
| 1981 | Julian
Barnes Clive Sinclair A. N. Wilson |
Metroland Hearts of Gold The Healing Art |
| 1982 | William Boyd Adam Mars-Jones |
A Good Man in Africa Lantern Lecture |
| 1983 | Lisa St Aubin de Teran | Keepers of the House |
| 1984 | Peter Ackroyd Timothy Garton Ash Sean O'Brien |
The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde The Polish Revolution: Solidarity The Indoor Park |
| 1985 | Blake Morrison Jeremy Reed Jane Rogers |
Dark Glasses By the Fisheries Her Living Image |
| 1986 | Patricia Ferguson Adam Nicolson Tim Parks |
Family Myths and Legends Frontiers Tongues of Flame |
| 1987 | Stephen Gregory Janni Howker Andrew Motion |
The Cormorant Isaac Campion The Lamberts |
| 1988 | Jimmy Burns Carol Ann Duffy Matthew Kneale |
The Land That Lost Its Heroes Selling Manhattan Whore Banquets |
| 1989 | Rupert Christiansen Alan Hollingshurst Deirdre Madden |
Romantic Affinities The Swimming Pool Library The Birds of the Innocent Wood |
| 1990 | Mark Hudson Sam North Nicholas Shakespeare |
Our Grandmother's Drums The Automatic Man The Vision of Elena Silves |
| 1991 | Peter Benson Lesley Glaister Helen Simpson |
The Other Occupant Honour Thy Father Four Bare Legs in a Bed |
| 1992 | Geoff Dyer Lawrence Norfolk Gerard Woodward |
But Beautiful Lempriere's Dictionary Householder |
| 1993 | Dea Birket Duncan McLean Glyn Maxwell |
Jella Bucket of Tongues Out of the Rain |
| 1994 | Jackie Kay A. L. Kennedy Philip Marsden |
Other Lovers Looking for the Possible Dance Crossing Place |
| 1995 | Patrick French Simon Garfield Kathleen Jamie Laura Thompson |
Younghusband The End of Innocence The Queen of Sheba The Dogs |
| 1996 | Katherine Pierpoint Alan Warner |
Truffle Beds Morvern Callar |
| 1997 | Rhidian Brook Kate Clanchy Philip Hensher Francis Spufford |
The Testimony of Taliesin
Jones Slattern Kitchen Venom I May Be Some Time |
| 1998 | Rachel Cusk Jonathan Rendall Kate Summerscale Robert Twigger |
The Country Life This Bloody Mary Is the Last Thing I Own The Queen of Whale Cay Angry White Pyjamas |
| 1999 | Andrea Ashworth Paul Farley Giles Foden Jonathan Freedland |
Once in a House on Fire The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You The Last King of Scotland Bring Home the Revolution |
| 2000 | Bella Bathurst Sarah Waters |
The Lighthouse Sevensons Affinity |
| 2001 | Edward Platt Ben Rice |
Leadville Pobby and Dingan |
| 2002 | Charlotte Hobson Marcel Theroux |
Black Earth City The Paperchase |
| 2003 | Hari Kunzru William Fiennes Jon McGregor |
The Impressionist The Snow Geese If Nobody Speaks of RemarkableThings |
| 2004 | Charlotte Mendelson Mark Blayney Robert Macfarlane |
Daughters of Jerusalem Two Kinds of Silence Mountains of the Mind |
| 2005 | Justin Hill Maggie O'Farrell |
Passing Under Heaven The Distance Between Us |
| 2006 | Chris Cleave Owen Sheers Zadie Smith |
Incendiary Skirrid Hill On Beauty |
| 2007 | Horatio Clare James Scudamore |
Running to the Hills The Amnesia Clinic |
| 2008 | Gwendoline Riley Steven Hall Nick Laird Adam Thirwell |
Joshua Spassky The Raw Shark Texts On Purpose Miss Herbert |
| 2009 | Adam Foulds Alice Albinia Rodge Glass Henry Hitchings Thomas Leveritt Helen Walsh |
The Broken Word Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River Alasdair Gray: A Secretary's Biography The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English The Exchange Rate Between Love and Money Once Upon a Time in England |
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