Bailey-Smith, Parry and Raven shortlisted for RSL Christopher Bland Prize

Yvonne Bailey-Smith, Julia Parry and Charlotte Raven have made the shortlist for this year’s £10,000 RSL Christopher Bland Prize, which goes to a debut author aged 50 or over. 

The award, named in memory of Canongate’s former chairman Sir Christopher Bland whose first novel was published when he was aged 76, is now in its fourth year. The winner, judged by chair David Baddiel, alongside Caroline Criado Perez and Naga Munchetty, will be announced on 7th June. 

Bailey-Smith is shortlisted for The Day I Fell Off My Island (Myriad Editions). Judges praised the book for its “absorbing and often shocking storytelling”. Parry is in contention for The Shadowy Third: Love, Letters, and Elizabeth Bowen (Duckworth Books), which follows Parry’s grandparents Humphry House and Madeline Church, and their relationship with the novelist Elizabeth Bowen. The judges said: “It’s very epistolary and very beautiful, particularly with Bowen’s letters which are astonishingly beautiful, complex and intense. It’s like reading one of Elizabeth Bowen’s great novels.”