Waterstones names three debuts as Irish, Scottish and Welsh books of the year

Waterstones has named three debuts as its Irish, Scottish and Welsh books of the year 2025: respectively, Wendy Erskine’s The Benefactors, Tom Newlands’ Only Here, Only Now and Anthony Shapland’s A Room Above a Shop. The awards began in 2012 and specifically champion books by authors based in, or titles with a strong setting in each country.

Erskine’s "unique and cinematic" novel The Benefactors (Hodder & Stoughton) centres on "Frankie, Miriam and Bronagh: three very different women from Belfast, but all mothers to 18-year-old boys".

The synopsis continues: "When their sons are accused of sexually assaulting a friend, Misty Johnston, they’ll come together to protect their children, leveraging all the powers they possess. But on her side, Misty has the formidable matriarch, Nan D, and her father, taxi-driver Boogie: an alliance not so easily dismissed."

It adds: "Brutal, tender and rigorously intelligent, The Benefactors is a daring, polyphonic presentation of modern-day Northern Ireland. It is also very funny."

Paula Cardwell, Waterstones, Foyleside, said: "Wendy Erskine is an exceptional literary stylist and The Benefactors is a rare pleasure to read. Hilarious and heartbreaking, and mixing darkness with incredible lightness and humour, it is a unique and cinematic portrayal of real people in a real Belfast: a sparkling symphony of voices, of characters you feel you already know."

Lily Keohane, Waterstones Irish commercial manager, said: "This has truly been the year of the outstanding Irish debut, with dozens of new names to be added to the lengthy history of Irish writing.

"The Benefactors is incredibly rich and absorbing, poignant but never sentimental, and at times truly hilarious, with an obvious delight in the opportunity for a bountiful cast of characters. Since its publication this summer it has quickly become a bookseller favourite and we can’t wait to share it with even more readers."

Newlands’ Only Here, Only Now (Orion) was called "funny, unforgettable, joyful and unforgettable".

The synopsis reads: "Fife, in the blazing hot summer of 1994. Cora Mowat’s mates don’t understand her, but then Cora Mowat doesn’t understand herself. She’s stuck on a seaside council estate full of dafties, old folk and seagulls, with a thousand dreams and a restless brain that won’t behave."

It continues: "When her Mam’s new boyfriend moves in, tensions rise in their tiny house… As their attempts to forge a makeshift family unravel, Cora rails against her small-town existence in search of love, acceptance and a path to something good. But sometimes you can’t move forward until you find your way back…"

Jack Kennedy, lead bookseller Waterstones St Andrews, said: "Only Here, Only Now is mandatory reading for our times. At once passionate, peaceful and powerful, this is a love letter to Scottish fiction through and through. Newlands’ writing vibrates in your hands and leaves a mark on the soul. A book with a real heartbeat."

The Welsh book of the year is "utterly stunning" novel A Room Above a Shop (Granta). The synopsis reads: "When two quiet men form a tentative connection, neither knows where it might lead. M has inherited his family’s ironmongery business and B is younger by 11 years and can see no future in the place where he has grown up, but when M offers him a job and lodgings, he accepts. As the two men work side by side in the shop, they also begin a life together in their one shared room above – the kind of life they never imagined possible and that risks everything if their public performance were to slip."

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