Stacey Halls’ Mrs England has been longlisted for the prestigious Portico Prize, the biennial award for the book that best evokes the spirit of the North of England, open to new works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.
The West Yorkshire-set Mrs England features on a 14-strong longlist drawn up by Portico’s Society of Readers and Writers, a collective of literacy advocates, booksellers, librarians, writers, and critics based across the North.
The Portico Prize has been running since 1985, with previous winners including Val McDermid, Anthony Burgess, Sarah Hall, Jenny Uglow, and – most recently – Jessica Andrews for Saltwater.
The shortlist will be announced on December 7th, with the winner revealed at a ceremony at the Portico Library in January.