London-based author Lucy Steed has achieved a remarkable literary double, with her debut novel The Artist being named the 2025 Waterstones Book of the Year. This prestigious win comes hot on the heels of her securing the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize for the same work.
A Triumphant Debut Set in the South of France
The winning title, The Artist, is a romantic-mystery that transports readers to the sun-drenched landscape of southern France during a Provencal summer in the 1920s. The narrative revolves around an enigmatic painter, his niece, and a British journalist determined to write about him, with tensions simmering and escalating between the trio. Steed began crafting the novel while living in France, channelling the region's atmosphere into her prose.
Bea Carvalho, Waterstones' Head of Books, hailed the novel as a "gorgeously escapist" and "sensory" experience. She praised its ability to weave mystery with romance while exploring the complexities of artistry, declaring Steed a writer of "staggering, rare talent."
Overcoming Stiff Competition and Other Category Winners
Steed's victory was hard-won, triumphing over a formidable shortlist that included Sir David Attenborough and Colin Butfield’s Ocean and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games prequel, Sunrise On The Reaping. With this accolade, she now joins an elite group of past winners such as Asako Yuzuki (2024's 'Butter') and Katherine Rundell (2023's 'Impossible Creatures').
In the children's category, the 2025 Waterstones Children’s Book of the Year was awarded to Bafta-winning animation director Mikey Please for his debut picture book, The Cafe At The Edge Of The Woods. This playful, rhyming story follows Rene and her waiter Glumfoot as they realise their dream of running a cafe, only to serve a host of mythical customers who order increasingly disgusting meals.
Carvalho described the children's winner as bursting with "charm and delight," celebrating its "sweetly slapstick and quirkily surreal" nature.
Celebrating Culinary and Literary Excellence
The awards also recognised achievement beyond fiction. Chef Tim Siadatan, co-owner of London's renowned Trullo and Padella restaurants, received the Waterstones Gift of the Year 2025 for his pasta book, Padella. Carvalho noted the book was both "inspiring yet accessible" and a "stunningly produced" example of design excellence.
All winning titles will receive extensive promotional support across Waterstones' UK shops and through its Waterstones Plus loyalty programme, which engages over a million readers. This ensures that these celebrated books will find their way into the hands of eager readers nationwide.
