THE winner of the Winston Graham Historical Prize for fiction was announced as Andrew Miller during a ceremony at the Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery in Truro on June 11.

The accolade comes with a cheque for £3,000, and national recognition for the shortlist of six authors.

The Winston Graham Historical Prize is for novels set in the UK and Ireland at least 60 years ago with a strong sense of place. It is the result of a bequest made by Winston Graham, author of the Poldark series, to the Royal Institution of Cornwall – the charity which runs the museum.

Miller’s novel, The Land in Winter, is set in a small village in the South West during the ‘Big Freeze’ of 1963, when Britain came to a standstill under a blanket of snow. The world was poised between the shadow of the Second World War and the societal transformations of the mid-1960s.

Published by Sceptre, the novel (Miller’s tenth) has been widely praised for its surreal atmosphere and the intense depiction of the main characters’ inner lives. It has also been shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize which is to be announced this week.

Judge and fellow author Francis Spufford said: “It takes the delight that all great historical fiction does in putting together for us the pieces, small and large, of a lost world. It’s an exquisite achievement, luminously written, full of wonder at the diversity and strangeness of human experience.”

Miller was unable to attend the ceremony but in a recorded message said: “Winston Graham's novels were early favourites of mine, so it's a particular thrill to win this year's prize. Another of my favourites - Herman 'Moby Dick' Melville - once said that when he wrote a book, it was like a letter to the world, and he hoped for a letter back. This prize is my letter back. I feel hugely encouraged and grateful.”

The other shortlisted authors were Elizabeth O’Connor, Carys Davies, Glen James Brown, Rosanna Pike and Francesca Kay. Charlotte Hobson, chair of the judges, told them: “The shortlist is selected democratically by a readers’ committee made up of diverse and enthusiastic readers all over Cornwall. Each of these books was passionately advocated for by dozens of them – a real ovation from the public. It made the final judges’ job a hard one.”

Jonathan Morton, Co-Director of Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery, thanked Charlotte, Francis and their fellow judges - Colin Midson, Lamorna Ash and Winston Graham’s daughter-in-law, Peggotty – for their efforts, adding: “The museum is proud of its connection with Winston Graham, who researched many of his Poldark novels here and bequeathed a legacy for us to run this prize celebrating stories which open windows onto the past.

“Bringing people and places from history to life is in our DNA, and the prize is an important facet of how we do that. Plus, it gives us all a ready-made summer reading list to enjoy!”