The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction is celebrating 20 years of the Prize this year and the ten Chairs of Judges from 2006-2015 are coming together to select the ‘Best of the Best’ novel written by a woman, of the last ten years.
Co-founder and author Kate Mosse said, “What better way to honour our second decade of winners than to put all ten winning novels back in the spotlight and introduce a new generation of readers to these exceptional works.”
We’d love to know which books you’ve read and what you thought about them. Why not leave a review? Click on the title of the book and share your thoughts with other readers.
2006 – On Beauty by Zadie Smith
2007 – Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie
2008 – The Road Home by Rose Tremain
2009 – Home Marilynne Robinson
2010 – The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
2011 – The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht
2012 – The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
2013 – May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes
2014 – A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride
2015 – How to be Both by Ali Smith
The exciting anniversary celebrations will include two weeks of programming with BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour where each of the ten Chairs of Judges from 2006-2015 will be interviewed individually about ‘their’ winning novel, starting from Monday 19 October. They will be running a poll to see who their listeners vote as the ‘Best of the Best’ and you can join in to vote for your favourite title on the Woman’s Hour website. Their winner will be announced on the morning of Monday 2 November.
Now we are 20! Competition and event news
The Prize is giving away a set of the 10 winning Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction books of the last decade as part of the celebrations, plus a pair of tickets to their 20th anniversary event. Simply like their Facebook post and page for your chance to win.
Tickets are now on sale for the ‘Best of the Best’ event at London’s Piccadilly Theatre on Monday 2 November. Hosted by novelist and Chair of the BWPFF Board, Kate Mosse, it will feature award-winning actors – including Stanley Tucci and Sheila Hancock – reading from each of the ten novels. Following this will be a riveting discussion between the 10 Chairs of Judges, from the second decade including Joanna Trollope, Bettany Hughes and Shami Chakrabarti, culminating in the announcement of their ‘Best of the Best’ book of the last ten years.
Can’t make it down to London for the live show? Don’t worry! The whole event is being streamed live, so you can have a front row seat and be one of the first to find out which novel has been crowned ‘Best of the Best’ of the second decade. Bookmark this page and tune in from 6.30pm on Monday 2 November. For a chance to win the full set of titles, just tweet a 3 word review of any of the 10 books on the night using the hashtag #BestofBest.
Get involved
Who do you think should be crowned #BestofBest? Join the conversation on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using the hashtag #BestofBest
For more information, visit the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction website.
