Queen Camilla made a surprise appearance at an open-air event to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Women’s Prize for Fiction in London where she hailed the competition for helping female writers
The Queen has praised a leading fiction competition for elevating women’s narratives from the “margins” to the “very centre” of the literary world. The royal graced an alfresco celebration marking the Women’s Prize for Fiction’s 30th anniversary with her unexpected presence, where she engaged with this year’s shortlisted writers.
British novelist and non-fiction writer Kate Mosse, who helped establish the award, lauded Camilla as a “genuine reader” and a staunch supporter of the initiative, remarking on the Royal visit: “If you’re going to lay on the Queen, if it’s not Beyoncé, it’s got to be the actual Queen.”
The Queen addressed the crowd gathered in Bedford Square gardens, reflecting on 1995 — the year the prize was founded — as a pivotal moment for women.
READ MORE: Elizabeth Strout, Miranda July and four debut writers make the Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist
She highlighted that while 1995 saw women achieving milestones like winning a Nobel Prize and piloting a space shuttle for the first time, the literary world presented a “bleaker” picture, with only 9% of female authors making it onto major prize shortlists despite penning 60% of novels.
Camilla underscored that Mosse and her colleagues initiated the Women’s Prize for Fiction because “they believed that women’s stories should be truly heard, understood and honoured; and that it was time to disprove Virginia Woolf’s famous statement that ‘Anon…was often a woman'”.
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She expressed: “They did this by establishing the Women’s Prize for Fiction and its instantly recognisable statuette, ‘The Bessie’. This simple, but radical, step brought the female voice from the margins of the literary world to its very centre.”
Camilla engaged in conversation with the six authors shortlisted for the prize – Aria Aber, Sanam Mahloudji, Elizabeth Strout, Nussaibah Younis, Miranda July and Yael van der Wouden.
Younis managed to inject some humour into the proceedings and got some laughs when she quipped: “We’re trying to take each other out, the champagne glasses are spiked, there could be one left standing.”
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Following her chat with Camilla, Younis commented on her competition, saying: “I have read all of the books and I’m blown away. They’re funny and so sexy and very erotic.”
The Queen Consort then met the authors selected for the shortlist of the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, including the illustrious singer-songwriter and rapper Neneh Cherry, who penned A Thousand Threads, recounting her extraordinary career journey.
“I wrote a memoir, a book about my life,” Cherry told Camilla enthusiastically. She revealed that it took her over four years to pen the memoir, admitting: “It took more than four years to write it and I’m still slightly recovering. It’s out there now, I have let it go, it’s out in the world.”
During the exchange, the Queen evidently showed interest, telling author Claire Mulley: “I think I will put that on my holiday reading list.”
Furthermore, she conveyed to Chloe Dalton that she had delved into her book Raising Hare, which narrates Dalton’s transition from the frantic urban landscape to a pastoral existence. “Thank you so much, I am honoured,” she responded.
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