Now in its fifth year, the Royal Society of Literature’s Prize named after Sir Christopher Bland, who published his first book at the age of 76, celebrates outstanding achievements for a debut novelist or non-fiction writer first published aged 50 or over. This year’s judges are Lemn Sissay (Chair), Meena Kandasamy, and Simon Savidge.

Meena Kandasamy says of I Am Not Your Eve, “Ponnambalam sublimely deconstructs patriarchy and colonialism, even as she stays within the contours of the story she is telling.”