We are thrilled that Silver Harvest has been shortlisted for Best Debut Novel at the East Anglian Book Awards.

Now in their eighteenth year, the awards are presented by the National Centre for Writing, in partnership with the Eastern Daily Press and Norwich UNESCO City of Literature, with support from University of East Anglia’s Faculty of Arts & Humanities.

Silver Harvest tells the stories of four generations of fishermen as they make their lives by the sea. Populated with dynamic characters and spanning more than 130 years, it is an homage to Lowestoft and the people who have lived it and built it.

Daryl writes:

“It is a privilege to be shortlisted alongside so many good writers. Such recognition makes all the hard work of writing worthwhile. I wanted to dramatize Lowestoft’s remarkable history to remind people what a wonderful story it has. Hopefully, through the book’s generations of characters, readers will come to know and appreciate it as I do.”

Winners in each of the seven categories will be announced in January 2026, followed by the Overall Book of the Year and City of Literature Awards, presented at a special event at the National Centre for Writing in Norwich on Thursday 12 February 2026.

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Watch a Trailer for Silver Harvest

Read an Extract

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Read the shortlists

Debut Novels

• Silver Harvest by Daryl Fraser (Story Machine)
• The Eights by Joanna Miller (Fig Tree)
• Season by George Harrison (Eye Books)

Biography & Memoir

• Named: A Story of Names and Reclaiming Who We Are by Camilla Balshaw (Bedford Square Publishers)
• I Love You, Byeee by Adam Buxton (HarperCollins)
• No Country for a Woman: The Adventurous Life of Lady Dorothy Mills, Explorer and Writer by Jane Dismore (The History Press)

Children’s Books

• Ghost Tide by Jim Cockin (Eye Books)
• A Symphony of Stories: Musical Myths and Tuneful Tales by James Mayhew (Otter-Barry Books Ltd)
• Trouble at the Bug Hotel by Kathryn Simmonds (Walker Books)

Fiction

• Sweat by Emma Healey (Hutchinson Heinemann)
• Poppyland by DJ Taylor (Salt)
• Florrie: A Football Love Story by Anna Trench (Jonathan Cape)

General Non-Fiction

• Neurodivergent, By Nature by Joe Harkness (Bloomsbury)
• Flint Country: A Stone Journey by Laurence Mitchell (Saraband)
• Go West by Steve Silk (Summersdale)

History & Tradition

• Finding the Wayfarer: Physical, Spiritual and Poetic Survival by Emma Rose Barber (Tandem Publishing Ltd)
• To the Eel Island: An Evening Journey by Charles Moseley (Merlin Unwin Books)
• Broadland: Shaping Marsh and Fen by Tom Williamson & Alison Yardy (University of Hertfordshire Press)

Poetry

• To Make People Happy by John Osborne (Mariscat Press)
• Buying the Farm by Eliza O’Toole (Shearsman Books)
• Kiss My Earth by Alice Willitts (Blue Diode Press)