Baileys’ Women’s Prize for Fiction 2015 – winner

Just let out a yelp of joy that was so heartfelt – and loud – that the cat has promptly skedaddled out of the room in horror.  Thrilled to bits to confirm that the winner for the Bailey’s prize for this year is none other than Ali Smith for How To Be Both, reviewed last month. The perfect choice – and no egg on my fresco after all!

The Guardian as always first to cover it – read tonight’s article here:

“ “I think she is a literary genius,” said Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights group Liberty. “I haven’t felt that way about reading since I was doing my English A-levels. It reminded me of what it felt like reading Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, all of the greats … that this is not a good book, this is a great book, and people are going to be reading it long after I’m dead.” ”

While the same Guardian had the bookies routing for Sarah Water’s “The Paying Guests” first thing this morning, it is also quick to highlight what separates Smith’s writing from the crowds here…

Get the Baileys out, time for a quick celebratory nightcap. And if you have half an hour to spare, the speeches shown of the 2015 Prize’s live stream via The Huffington Post UK website are a celebration of female literary talent and pursuing a passion, and are well worth a watch.

After all that excitement, am planning on keeping abreast of #ThisBookClub shenanigans during the year – see the recent initiative to find out who recommends what to whom on the Baileys’ prize website, as celebrities like sisters Emily and Felicity Blunt share each other’s current reads of “Life After Life” and “A Visit from the Goon Squad” – and take a nosy at the “The Brilliant Woman’s Guide to a Very Modern Book Club” here. Which reminds me, still have ten books to go for Mission Accomplished on previous Baileys’ winners, fallen a bit behind on that front recently…no rest for the wicked.

Image taken from here.