Margaret McDonald and her editors Alice Swan and Ama Badu win Branford Boase Award 2025
Margaret McDonald and her editors Alice Swan and Ama Badu are winners of the 2025 Branford Boase Award for outstanding debut novel for young people with Glasgow Boys, a moving, beautifully written coming-of-age novel exploring the power of identity, community and masculinity.
Founded in 2000, the Branford Boase Award was set up in memory of award-winning author Henrietta Branford and her editor Wendy Boase of Walker Books, who both died in 1999, and is unique in honouring both author and editor of outstanding debut novels.
The 2025 winners of the Branford Boase Award were announced by Nathanael Lessore on Wednesday 9 July. Margaret McDonald receives a cheque for £1,000 and she and Alice Swan and Ama Badu receive engraved trophies.
Nathanael Lessore, winner of the 2024 Branford Boase Award for Steady For This and one of this year’s judges, says, “The books on this year’s Branford Boase Award shortlist reflect the current battles that young people face societally and within themselves, but they also show the positive sides of humanity, community, leading to wonderful journeys of self-belief. Glasgow Boys was the book that had me tearing up with how raw and powerful it was. I finished it, feeling like I’d just watched an Oscar winning film. Banjo and Finlay were real, their emotions palpable, and their relationship beautiful. Not many books move me the way this one did. It had to win.”
Margaret McDonald describes her editorial relationship with Alice Swan and Ama Badu as unlike any other creative experience because, “they treated Banjo and Finlay as I do myself, which is as real people.” She adds, “I worked on every single aspect of Glasgow Boys with Alice and Ama, and it wouldn’t exist as it does today without them, truly.”
“Glasgow Boys is a piece of my soul and to have it recognised in this way is unbelievably special, but also to have my incredible editors Alice and Ama recognised for the magnificent work they did, taking such care of Banjo and Finlay, is more than half of the joy.”
Julia Eccleshare, Chair of the judges and co-founder of the Branford Boase Award adds, “Congratulations to Margaret McDonald, Alice Swan and Ama Badu. Tender and insightful, Glasgow Boys is a deeply moving story shaped by the struggles against class and poverty that so many young people in today’s society must overcome to change their lives and opportunities. Despite all, Margaret McDonald’s characters are full of hope and the story is refreshingly strong and bold, too. The relationship between author and editor is generally invisible to readers but is absolutely vital to the success of individual books, authors, and the publishing industry. We are immensely proud to highlight this with the Branford Boase Award.”
ALCS is proud to sponsor the Branford Boase Award. You can learn more about the award here.
