Novelist Claire Lynch ‘shell-shocked’ at winning The Nero Gold Prize

Claire Lynch has said she felt “genuinely shell-shocked” at winning The Nero Gold Prize – the first time a debut novel has won since the awards began.

A Family Matter was inspired by real-life child custody cases from the 1980s and is described by the awards as “full of hope and levity as well as moments of darkness”.

Speaking moments after receiving the prize by the chairman of judges, Nick Hornby, at a ceremony in central London, Lynch said she was “delighted” to have won against the shortlist of esteemed authors who included Ian McEwan and Patrice Lawrence.

She told the Press Association: “I didn’t think there was a chance of me winning. It’s really exceptional, I’m delighted to have won.”

She said the subject matter of her story came from “partly a chance discovery of the history”.

She continued: “I guess I had a generalised sense that the 80s for queer mothers wasn’t exactly a holiday, but I didn’t realise that there were these custody cases.

“So once I sort of came across them, I guess in my in my sort of reading around the period, it then became a bit of a responsibility – or an opportunity – to put that real problem in a fictional family and get the story into the world a little bit more.”

Lynch, who has spent her career teaching literature in universities, is also the author of the non-fiction book Small: On Motherhoods, and lives in Windsor, Berkshire, with her wife and three daughters.

About A Boy author Hornby said Lynch’s novel was singled out for its “wry humour, its deft storytelling, and its love for all its characters, even those who behave in ways we find hard to understand, and who make choices which we would regard as morally questionable”.

The awards are split into four sections and saw one book from each section shortlisted for the overall award in January.

These were Seascraper by Benjamin Wood for the fiction award, Death Of An Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry for the non-fiction award, and My Soul, A Shining Tree by Jamila Gavin for the children’s fiction award.

Lynch’s novel, which topped the best debut fiction category, was then named the overall winner.

Hornby said he believed A Family Matter would be “read and thought about for years to come.”

“It is both readable and intelligent, and it offers hope and consolation,” he added.

Published in May last year, it was described in The Guardian as “smart and heartbreaking”, while The New York Times said it “burns like a sparkler, quick and mesmerising”.

Other books to be shortlisted for the award included What We Can Know by McEwan, The Finest Hotel In Kabul by BBC journalist Lyse Doucet, and People Like Stars by Lawrence.

When they were revealed in November, the 16 nominated books saw an average week-on-week sales increase of 75% in the UK in the two weeks afterwards, organisers said.

The Nero Book Awards were established by coffee house group Caffe Nero in 2023 in partnership with The Booksellers Association and Brunel University of London.

Caffe Nero founder and chief executive Gerry Ford said: “As the Nero Book Awards continue to grow, it becomes even harder to pick the Nero Gold Prize winner.

“Our judges have selected a provocative, thought-provoking book which showcases great writing.

“These awards were established to discover the best talent being published in the UK and Ireland, and Claire Lynch is a great example of this.

“I look forward to seeing how she progresses in her career.”

To be eligible, books must have been first published in English in the UK or Ireland between the December 1 2024 and November 30 2025, and authors must have been alive and resident in the UK or Ireland for the past three years at the time of writing.