George Harrison’s novel Season, set in the stands of an unnamed Premier League football stadium, has been shortlisted for best debut novel at the Nero Book Awards.
The gently uplifiting study of loneliness and modern masculinity, in which two very different men form a slow, gradual bond in their adjacent season ticket seats, has been festooned with praise by sports lovers and literary critics alike.
‘Clever, heartfelt’
The commentator Jonathan Pearce calls it ‘a beautiful novel about the beautiful game’ while the Mail on Sunday hailed it as ‘a clever, heartfelt debut’.
It is currently also on the shortlist for the East Anglian Book Awards, again in the best debut novel category.
Caffè Nero
Season’s shortlisting for the Nero Awards – alongside Claire Lynch’s A Family Matter, Ben Pester’s The Expansion Project and Rochelle Dowden-Lord’s Lush – was announced this morning.
George, who lives in Norwich, said: ‘I actually did a lot of the work on Season from my local Caffè Nero - including a huge swathe of the editing. I know most of the staff at the the Norwich Unthank Road branch, which I visit multiple times a week.’
The category award winners will be announced on 13 January 2026 and the Nero Gold Prize ceremony will be in March.