1969 Something to Answer For by P H Newby
1970 The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens
1971 In a Free State by V S Naipaul
1972 G. by John Berger
1973 The Siege of Krishnapur by J G Farrell
1974 The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer and Holiday by Stanley Middleton
1975 Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
1976 Saville by David Storey
1977 Staying On by Paul Scott
1978 The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
1979 Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
1980 Rites of Passage by William Golding
1981 Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
1982 Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally
1983 Life & Times of Michael K by J M Coetzee
1984 Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
1985 The Bone People by Keri Hulme
1986 The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis
1987 Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
1988 Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
1989 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
1991 The Famished Road by Ben Okri
1992 The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje and Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth
1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
1994 How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman
1995 The Ghost Road by Pat Barker
1996 Last Orders by Graham Swift
1997 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
2000 The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
2001 True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
2002 Life of Pi by Yann Martel
2003 Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
2004 The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
2005 The Sea John Banville
2006 The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
2007 The Gathering by Anne Enright
2008 The White Tiger by Aravind Aviga