A conversation with Matilda Battersby, 2024 Fiction Prize winner with ‘Forced Perspective’
Matilda shares her journey to literary success, the impact of the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize, and advice for aspiring writers.
Matilda was proclaimed winner at tonight’s dedicated award ceremony.
This year’s prize received once again an exceptional number of entries, totalling over 600. The shortlisted works spanned a variety of genres and showcase the remarkable literary talent of women writers across the UK and Ireland. After a spirited discussion, the judging panel awarded the top prize to Matilda Battersby’s Forced Perspective, “a whip-smart, unsettling, compulsive read that evoked the creative spirit very well indeed”.
Matilda Battersby is a freelance editor and journalist. She spent seven years working at The Independent newspaper, where she was arts editor for digital, and was editor of the literary magazine Popshot Quarterly for five years. She has been freelance for nearly nine years, during which time she has written for The Times, i newspaper, Evening Standard, HuffPost UK and others. Matilda also writes and edits content for brands and agencies and teaches journalism at the University of Greenwich. She lives in east London along with her partner and son.
The winner of the 2024 Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize was announced tonight at a special ceremony. The winner will receive a £1,500 cash prize and invaluable support and guidance from the prestigious literary agency, Peters Fraser + Dunlop.
Congratulations to Matilda, and to all those selected for this year’s longlist and shortlist.
Chair of the judging panel, Daisy Goodwin says, “Reading the submissions felt like opening a jewel box of female creativity. I wanted every book on the short list to be published now so I could finish it.”
Tim Bates, Head of the Books Department & Literary Agent at PFD, adds, “In another exceptional year for the Prize, with an especially high-quality shortlist, Matilda Battersby’s Forced Perspective was the stand-out entry. Whip-smart and beautifully written, with a perfectly realised art world setting, an intriguing and provocative plot, it will make the perfect book club novel. I’m very hopeful that it will be a huge bestseller.”
Alongside the main Fiction Prize winner, at the ceremony, we also celebrated the winners of our Student Writing Prizes.
View a selection of images from the ceremony here
The Fiction Prize and its authors
Since the Prize’s foundation in 2010, many of our shortlisted and longlisted authors have been offered agency representation and have gone on to be published, many of their books becoming bestsellers. At Lucy Cavendish College, we are extremely proud to be the starting point in numerous entrants’ success stories, giving them the platform to launch successful and ongoing careers as novelists.
