Orange Prize long list

Caroline has shown remarkable prescience in her recommendation of Madeline Miller's book The Song of Achilles (see the blog at Classic choices for the new year) for it has just been long listed for the Orange Prize. Miller appears to be one of the few unknown authors on this year's list (you will recognise the names of many of the others). This has prompted David Lister to ask, in today's Independent, whether we still need an prize exclusively for women authors. He points out that in this week's WH Smith fiction charts 13 of the top 20 paperbacks and 12 of the top 20 hardbacks are by women. On those statistics, he has a point (although I've not looked at the WH Smith charts so it may be that they are stuffed full of Katie Price books which would undermine his point). However, to my mind the prize has added interest and relevance since all the judges are women as is the governing committee (the most recent addition to this being Martha Lane Fox). And as a book group we seem to respond well to the Orange prize since I think we have read, either collectively or individually, many of the past winners (think Bel Canto, On Beauty, Half of a Yellow Sun, Small Island and many others). The shortlist is announced on 17 April and the winner on 29 May by which time I am determined to have read The Song of Achilles.