Rose Tremain Wins 2008 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction

Rose Tremain has won the thirteenth Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction with her novel The Road Home.

At an awards ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London, hosted by Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction Co-Founder and Honorary Director, Kate Mosse, the 2008 Chair of Judges, Kirsty Lang, presented the author with the œ30,000 prize and the 'Bessie', a limited edition bronze figurine. Both are anonymously endowed.

The Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction was set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote fiction written by women throughout the world to the widest range of readers possible. The Orange Prize is awarded to the best novel of the year written in English by a woman.

The judges for the 2008 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction are:

Kirsty Lang (Chair), Journalist & Broadcaster
Lisa Allardice, Editor of Guardian Review
Philippa Gregory, Novelist
Bel Mooney, Novelist, Journalist & Children's Author

Previous winners of the Orange Prize are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Half of a Yellow Sun (2007), Zadie Smith for On Beauty (2006), Lionel Shriver for We Need to Talk About Kevin (2005), Andrea Levy for Small Island (2004), Valerie Martin for Property (2003), Ann Patchett for Bel Canto (2002), Kate Grenville for The Idea of Perfection (2001), Linda Grant for When I Lived in Modern Times (2000), Suzanne Berne for A Crime in the Neighbourhood (1999), Carol Shields for Larry's Party (1998), Anne Michaels for Fugitive Pieces (1997), and Helen Dunmore for A Spell of Winter (1996).

Celebrity guests at the event included Geri Halliwell, Ian Hislop, Alexi Sayle and Vanessa Feltz.
Joanna Kavenna Wins 2008 Orange Broadband Award for New Writers
The Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction awards ceremony also saw the announcement of the 2008 Orange Broadband Award for New Writers. Established in 2005 as part of the Orange Prize 10th year celebrations, the emphasis of the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers is on emerging talent and the evidence of future potential. Chair of Judges, Shami Chakrabarti, presented a œ10,000 bursary, provided by Arts Council England, to Joanna Kavenna for her novel Inglorious.

The 2008 award ceremony took place in The Ballroom of the recently refurbished Royal Festival Hall. Guests toasted the winner announcement at a champagne drinks reception courtesy of Taittinger.
For more information on this year's authors and judges, go to www.orangeprize.co.uk.

A video report from Orange