In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, we have partnered with WHSmith to bring you a selection of titles from previous Women’s Prize for Fiction winners, nominated authors and judges at Buy One, Get One Half Price at a selection of their travel stores throughout the UK.
Included in the selection is Meg Mason’s Sorrow & Bliss – shortlisted for the Prize in 2022. We caught up with Meg to learn more about her book, what she looks for in a book as a travel companion, and the Women’s Prize’s impact on her.
What has it meant to be part of the Women’s Prize over the past 30 years?
Before I was an author, I would look up the Women’s Prize when I needed something to read; the full list of shortlistees and winners, online, because it was a guarantee of a wonderful book. To look at the list now and see my name on it, it is the most impossible joy and privilege. And I’m so happy for every author, published or yet-unpublished, who is currently slaving over a novel and may well have that joy ahead of them.
What does the Women’s Prize for Fiction mean to you?
It means that authors are being honoured for the work they do, in this case female authors who have, historically, had a much harder time finding space and time and necessary silence for the work and, arguably, still do.
As a reader, what are you looking for in a book when you choose it as a travel companion?
On holiday, I want a novel set in opposite weather – bleak winter if I’m lying on a beach, something sweltering if I’m freezing up the side of a mountain. If it’s travelling for work, I’ll take anything funny.
Introduce your book to a new reader.
Sorrow and Bliss is a well-disguised love story and a comedy about a desperately serious subject. We follow the heroine, Martha, from age 17 when ‘a little bomb goes off in her brain’ to her fortieth birthday, watching how her undiagnosed mental illness affects every stage of her life, and the lives of everyone around her. When she finally receives a diagnosis, almost by chance, we wonder if it’s too late for Martha to recover what she has lost and repair what’s broken. But that’s when the love story takes over.
