Lifetime Achievement Honor for British Fiction
LONDON — Novelist Sir Alan Hollinghurst has been named the recipient of the 2025 David Cohen Prize for Literature, one of the most prominent literary honors in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The biennial award, valued at £40,000, recognizes an author's entire body of work in fiction. The announcement was made during a ceremony in London by the chair of the judging panel, Hermione Lee.
Lee commended Hollinghurst as "one of the most daring, stylish, witty, humane and influential novelists writing in the English language today," highlighting his career-long portrayal of English identity and gay lives.
Decades of Literary Distinction
Hollinghurst, 71, earned international acclaim in 2004 when his novel The Line of Beauty won the Man Booker Prize. The book, a social satire set during Thatcher-era Britain, was subsequently adapted into a BBC television miniseries and later staged as a theatrical production at London's Almeida Theatre.
His published output spans nearly four decades, beginning with his 1988 debut The Swimming-Pool Library. Subsequent works include The Folding Star (1994), The Stranger's Child (2011), and Our Evenings (2024). Earlier in 2025, Hollinghurst was knighted for services to literature.
Reacting to the honor, Hollinghurst expressed profound gratitude, calling the David Cohen Prize "the most significant British literary prize" and noting that joining past honorees including Muriel Spark, V.S. Naipaul, and Harold Pinter serves as an encouragement to continue writing.
About the Award
Established in 1993 and funded by the David Cohen Family Charitable Trust, the David Cohen Prize for Literature is awarded every two years. Candidates are evaluated by a panel of distinguished literary critics, authors, and academics on the overall caliber and lasting impact of their literary output.