Julian Barnes, Rose Tremain and Sebastian Barry are among those on the longlist for a prestigious literary prize.
The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction is open to books published in the previous year in the UK, Ireland or the Commonwealth.
Reflecting the subtitle of Scott's famous work Waverley: Tis Sixty Years Since, the majority of the books' storylines must have taken place at least 60 years ago.
The 13 writers longlisted for this year's prize also include Graham Swift, Ed O'Loughlin and Sarah Perry.
The seven judges, who include writer Kate Figes and broadcaster James Naughtie, will now whittle the longlist down to a shortlist in April, with the winner to be announced in June at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose.
The judging panel said: "This has been an extraordinary year for historical fiction. We were knocked out by the quality and variety of the entries this year, but we have finally arrived at a longlist of astonishing depth and richness. We look forward to the challenging task of narrowing such a great longlist down to a shortlist.
"We would like to thank our new Academy for helping us reach the longlist, and for bringing to our attention gems from further afield. Together with the Academy, we can now shine a broader light on good books set in the past.
"The Walter Scott Prize is now a showcase for some of the best fiction in English, reaching into our past with freshness and vigour."
Books on the 2017 longlist are set in England, Ireland, France, Holland, Switzerland, Russia and North America, with historical settings ranging from the 17th to the 20th Centuries.
Julian Barnes is on the longlist for his book The Noise of Time.
The list includes two previous prizewinners: Sebastian Barry, who won the prize in 2012 with On Canaan's Side, and is in the running with Days Without End, and Rose Tremain, who was shortlisted in 2013 for Merivel and is a contender this year with The Gustav Sonata.
For the first time this year, the prize is publishing a further list of 20 books recommended by the Walter Scott Prize Academy, which was launched last year as a new innovation to help broaden the reach of the prize and strengthen its resources.
The Academy is an advisory group feeding into the submission process, and comprises people at the centre of literary life in the UK and Commonwealth countries, including the artistic directors of book festivals around the world, leading book retailers and literary critics.
First awarded in 2010, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction honours the inventor of the historical fiction genre, Sir Walter Scott. Previous winners include Hilary Mantel, Andrea Levy, Sebastian Barry, Tan Twan Eng, Robert Harris, John Spurling, and Simon Mawer.
The winner receives £25,000, while each shortlisted author receives £1,000, making the Walter Scott Prize amongst the richest fiction prizes in the UK.
The 13 books on the longlist are:
Jo Baker: A Country Road, A Tree
Julian Barnes: The Noise Of Time
Sebastian Barry: Days Without End
Richard Francis: Crane Pond
Linda Grant: The Dark Circle
Charlotte Hobson: The Vanishing Futurist
Hannah Kent: The Good People
Ed O'Loughlin: Minds of Winter
Sarah Perry: The Essex Serpent
Dominic Smith: The Last Painting Of Sara de Vos
Francis Spufford: Golden Hill
Graham Swift: Mothering Sunday
Rose Tremain: The Gustav Sonata
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