Vintage unveils Orange Inheritance Collection

The Bookseller - 30.03.11 - Charlotte Williams

Vintage Classics has unveiled its Orange Inheritance Collection, with works by Virginia Woolf, Richard Yates and Honore de Balzac among the titles selected by Orange Prize winners to pass on to the next generation. As previously reported, six Orange winners were tasked with choosing a title for the collection to mark the 16th anniversary of the prize.

Helen Dunmore, Orange Prize winner in 1996, chose Woolf's To the Lighthouse, with the following year's winner Anne Michaels selecting Tess of the D'Urbevilles by Thomas Hardy. Winner of the prize in 2000, Linda Grant, chose Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman, So Long, See you Tomorrow by William Maxwell was chosen by Ann Patchett, Orange Prize winner in 2002, and Lionel Shriver, who won in 2005, choosing Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. Rose Tremain, Orange Prize winner in 2008, chose Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac.

The six titles will be available from 7th April, priced between £5.99 and £9.99 each, was well as e-books through www.orange.co.uk/bookclub, with both formats including introductions from the Orange winners explaining why their choice is relevant to the next generation.

Editorial director Laura Hassan said: "It's wonderful to see what the winners of the Orange Prize for Fiction would pass on to the next generation. Their choices are as varied, surprising and controversial as you would expect from such a stellar group of writers."

Orange Prize co-founder and honorary director Kate Mosse said: "It's particularly fitting to celebrate the 16th anniversary of the Orange Prize with the launch of a collection designed to excite, engage and enthrall the next generation of readers but most of all, with a range of fantastic books that remain as relevant today as they were in the year they were first published."

As part of the launch, Vintage also asked 100 people what their classic would be, with highlights including Will Self choosing Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, Alan Titchmarsh choosing Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and Irvine Welsh choosing Naked Lunch by William Burroughs.