Wendy Erskine's The Benefactors named as Waterstones Irish book of the year Waterstones has named Wendy Erskine's The Benefactors, Tom Newlands' Only Here, Only Now and Anthony Shapland's A Room Above a Shop as its books of the year for Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

We’re so excited that the debuts of two of our former students have been named as Waterstones Books of the Year! 🎉

Congratulations to @newlands.bsky.social, winner of the Scottish Book of the Year #OnlyHereOnlyNow, and Anthony Shapland, winner of the Welsh Book of the Year #TheRoomAboveAShop.

We're so excited to see former student Tom Newlands' brilliant novel #OnlyHereOnlyNow on the #GordonBurnPrize 2025 shortlist! 🎉

Read more here: https://newwritingnorth.com/gordon-burn-prize/shortlist

“In most subjects, information went in my brain like drizzle going through a cobweb, but when I was actually interested it was different. I liked biology because I was quite good at it. I remembered stuff. The only issue was that big baldy dour dickhead of a teacher.”
#OnlyHereOnlyNow