News

2 May 2008: Hume Brown Prize awarded to Dr Douglas Watt

Scotland's most valuable History award, the Hume Brown Prize, has been won this year by Dr Douglas Watt for his book The Price of Scotland : Darien, Union and the Wealth of Nations (Luath Press, 2007).  The Prize, valued at £4000, is given for the best first book on a subject in Scottish History, published by a graduate of any Scottish university in the years 2006 and 2007.  It commemorates the life and work of  Professor Peter Hume Brown FBA, first incumbent of the Sir William Fraser Chair of Scottish History and Palaeography in the University of Edinburgh, the first ever dedicated professorial post in the subject.
Professor Tom Devine, the current Fraser Professor and chair of the panel of judges for the Prize, commented:
'Douglas Watt deserves warmest congratulations in achieving this accolade.  The field this year was of the highest quality and the panel had a difficult choice to make.  The overall standard of the books entered for the competition bodes well for the future of research in Scottish history.'