Overview

• Queen Camilla made a surprise appearance at the celebration in Bedford Square gardens in central London for the prize’s milestone anniversary.
• In her speech, she recalled the prize’s founding in 1995 to counter the underrepresentation of women when they comprised just 9% of major literary shortlist spots.
• The queen chatted with the six fiction finalists—Aria Aber, Sanam Mahloudji, Elizabeth Strout, Nussaibah Younis, Miranda July and Yael van der Wouden—and commended their work.
• She also met the non-fiction shortlist, discussing Neneh Cherry’s memoir A Thousand Threads and adding Claire Mulley’s Agent Zo to her reading list.
• Her presence highlighted three decades of the prize’s impact in bringing female narratives from the margins to the centre of the literary world.