Kate Mosse

It is no surprise that the recipient of this award has recently toured a one-woman show. For Kate Mosse is all of the things: writer, campaigner, feminist, essayist, playwright, cultural commentator, and, of course, founder director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, 30 years old this year, and now including a non-fiction prize among its roster.

Although the launch of the fiction prize was very much a group effort – a range of publishers, agents, journalists and booksellers rolling up their sleeves in response to no women being on he shortlist of a major prize back in 1991 – it has been Mosse who has remained central to the prize throughout three decades. She has acted as spokesperson and ambassador, helped to find sponsors, chaired judging meetings, participated and hosted endless events, read thousands of books and manuscripts, and, of course, been an integral part of the team who helped an annual book prize evolve into a respected and growing arts charity with a 24/7 global platform for readers.

Its impact has been profound, changing the conversation around women’s writing, proving it could be literary and readable, broad and focused, fun and serious. Its list of past winners, from Carol Shields to Zadie Smith to Andrea Levy to Maggie O’Farrell, has shaped the modern canon. Today, fiction written by women makes up 57% of all UK sales. Women’s Prize for Fiction books, from those longlisted to the winners, have generated sales of £350m – £50m of that from the winning books alone.

In 2025, Penguin is celebrating 90 years since its founder, the publisher Allen Lane, launched his Penguin paperbacks list, revolutionising reading. The British Book Award for Social Impact is inspired by Lane and his mission to widen access to books and democratise reading. In year one, we could not think of a more deserving winner than Kate Mosse. Readers owe a huge debt to Lane, and also to Mosse.