Tan Twan Eng wins Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction with The Garden of Evening Mists

Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng (PA)

Tan Twan Eng has won the £25,000 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction with The Garden of Evening Mists, beating double Man Booker winner Hilary Mantel to the title.

“History is all around us,” said the Malaysian author after being announced the winner at the Brewin Dolphin Borders Book Festival in Melrose. “The Walter Scott Prize is important in that it tells the world that history matters.”

The judges said: “The poignancy of both remembering and forgetting is what this book is all about.”