| 1969 | P H Newby | Something to Answer For (novel) | UK |
| 1970 | Bernice Rubens | The Elected Member (novel) | UK |
| 1970 | J G Farrell | Troubles (novel) | UK/Ireland |
| 1971 | V S Naipaul | In a Free State (short story) | UK/ Trinidad and Tobago |
| 1972 | John Berger | G (experimental novel) | |
| 1973 | J G Farrell | The Siege of Krishnapur (novel) UK | UK |
| 1974 | Nadine Gordimer | The Conservationist (novel) | South Africa |
| 1974 | Stanley Middleton | Holiday (novel) UK | UK |
| 1975 | Ruth Prawar Jhabvala | Heat and Dust (historical novel) | UK/ Germany |
| 1976 | David Storey | Saville (novel) UK | UK |
| 1977 | Paul Scott | Staying On (novel) UK | UK |
| 1978 | Iris Murdoch | The Sea, the Sea (philosophical novel) Ireland/ UK | UK |
| 1979 | Penelope Fitzgerald | Offshore (novel) UK | UK |
| 1980 | William Golding | Rites of Passage (novel) UK | UK |
| 1981 | Salman Rushdie | Midnight’s Children (Magic realism) | UK/ India |
| 1982 | Thomas Keneally | Schindler’s Ark (biographical novel) | Australia |
| 1983 | J M Coetzee | Life & Times of Michael K (novel) | South Africa |
| 1984 | Anita Brookner | Hotel du Lac (novel) | UK |
| 1985 | Keri Hulme | The Bone People ( A Mystery Novel) | New Zealand |
| 1986 | Kingsley Amis | The Old Devils (comic novel) | UK |
| 1987 | Penelope Lively | Moon Tiger (novel) | UK/ Egypt |
| 1988 | Peter Carey | Oscar and Lucinda (novel) | Australia |
| 1989 | Kazuo Ishiguro | The Remains of the Day (historical novel) | UK/ Japan |
| 1990 | A. S. Byatt | Possession (historical novel) | UK |
| 1991 | Ben Okri | The Famished Road (Magic realism) | Nigeria |
| 1992 | Michael Ondaatje | The English Patient (historiographic metafiction) | Canada |
| 1992 | Barry Unsworth | Sacred Hunger (Historical novel) | UK |
| 1993 | Roddy Doyle | Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (novel) | Ireland |
| 1994 | James Kelman | How Late It Was, How Late ( stream of consciousness) | UK/ Scotland |
| 1995 | Pat Barker | The Ghost Road (war novel) | UK |
| 1996 | Graham Swift | Last Orders (novel) | UK |
| 1997 | Arundhati Roy | The God of Small Things (novel) | India |
| 1998 | Ian McEwan | Amsterdam (novel) | UK |
| 1999 | J. M. Coetzee | Disgrace (novel) | South Africa |
| 2000 | Margaret Atwood | The Blind Assassin (historical novel) | Canada |
| 2001 | Peter Carey | True History of the Kelly Gang (historical novel) | Australia |
| 2002 | Yann Martel | Life of Pi (Fantasy and adventure novel) | Canada |
| 2003 | DBC Pierre | Vernon God Little (black comedy) | Australia |
| 2004 | Alan Hollinghurst | The Line of Beauty (historical novel) | UK |
| 2005 | John Banville | The Sea (novel) | Ireland |
| 2006 | Kiran Desai | The Inheritance of Loss (novel) | India |
| 2007 | Anne Enright | The Gathering (novel) | Ireland |
| 2008 | Aravind Adiga | The White Tiger (novel) | India |
| 2009 | Hilary Mantel | Wolf Hall (historical novel) | UK |
| 2010 | Howard Jacobson | The Finkler Question (comic novel) | UK |
| 2011 | Julian Barnes | The Sense of an Ending (novel) | |
| 2012 | Hilary Mantel | Bring Up the Bodies (historical novel) | UK |
| 2013 | Eleanor Catton | The Luminaries (historical novel) | New Zealand |
| 2014 | Richard Flanagan | The Narrow Road to the Deep North (historical novel) | Australia |
| 2015 | Marlon James | The Brief History of Seven Killings (historical novel) | Jamaica |
| 2016 | Paul Beatty | The Sellout (satirical novel) | US |
| 2017 | George Saunders | Lincoln in the Bardo (Historical/experimental novel) | US |
| 2018 | Anna Burns | Milkman (novel) | UK |
| 2019 | Margaret Atwood | The Testaments (Dystopian setting, Science fiction) | Canada |
