Trollope new chair of Orange Prize

01.08.11 | Charlotte Williams - The Bookseller

The Orange Prize for Fiction has appointed author Joanna Trollope as its chair of judges for 2012, only the second time a full-time novelist has chaired the prize.
Kate Mosse, author and co-founder and honorary director of the prize, was chair of the panel in 1996, its inaugural year. The full panel for 2012, made up of five women, will be announced in the autumn, with the £30,000 prize awarded to a female writer of fiction.
Trollope, whose novels include The Rector's Wife and Daughters in Law (both Transworld), said of her appointment: "This is such an impressive prize. I have long been a fan of Kate Mosse, and I have admiringly watched the Orange Prize grow into an award of real stature. It has produced winners of true distinction and originality and I love the fact that it is generously and properly open to the world. I was so pleased to be invited to chair next year's prize, and much look forward to working with the judges over the coming winter. It will be exciting-the Orange Prize always produces rewarding surprises."
Mosse said: "We are delighted that Joanna Trollope has agreed to chair the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction. Not only is she one of the UK's most admired and best-loved novelists, she is also one of the most generous in terms both of the support she gives fellow writers and the time she devotes to the promotion of reading."