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Lucy SteedsThe Artist Wins Waterstones Book of the Year 2025 and Debut Fiction Prize

Winners now receive prominent in-store placement plus outreach via the Waterstones Plus loyalty program.

Overview

  • Steeds’ debut topped a shortlist that included Sir David Attenborough and Colin Butfield’s Ocean and Suzanne Collins’ Sunrise on the Reaping.
  • The novel is set in 1920s Provence and follows an enigmatic painter, his niece, and a British journalist.
  • Waterstones head of books Bea Carvalho praised The Artist as “gorgeously escapist” and called Steeds a writer of “staggering, rare talent.”
  • BAFTA-winning animation director Mikey Please won Children’s Book of the Year for his debut picture book The Cafe at the Edge of the Woods.
  • Chef Tim Siadatan’s pasta cookbook Padella was named Gift of the Year, with all winners receiving nationwide shop support and online promotion to more than one million readers.