Queen Camilla and Brigitte Macron launch Anglo-French book prize

Queen Camilla and French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife, Brigitte, have launched a UK-France literary prize for young adult fiction.

This will allow “UK and French citizens to share joint literary experiences, reinforcing cultural ties while celebrating the joys of reading", Buckingham Palace said in a statement.

The Entente Littéraire Prize, or Prix de l’Entente Littéraire, is clearly inspired by the Entente Cordiale, the 1904 agreement between the UK and French governments that sharply improved bilateral relations.

The launch ceremony, on the second of the three-day state visit to France of King Charles and Queen Camilla (Thursday 21st September), was held at the recently renovated 17th-century original French National Library, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF) Richelieu, in central Paris. The site reopened in 2022 after 12 years of renovations.

The ceremony was followed by a reception attended by “notable” authors and other literary figures from both countries, as well as “students interested in literature", the statement said.

Queen Camilla supports a number of literary organisations and charities, including BookTrust, the National Literacy Trust, Book Aid International and Coram Beanstalk. In 2021, when still the Duchess of Cornwall, the queen launched The Reading Room on Instagram to give her book recommendations and insights from authors.

“The prize is an excellent initiative,” says Nicolas Roche, managing director of the French International Book Office (Bureau International de l’Edition Française, BIEF), which promotes French publishing abroad. “This is the first time that books have been a focus at the highest level of state,” he told The Bookseller.

In particular, Roche welcomes the fact that the prize is for young adult fiction, which is extremely dynamic in France. The sector is roughly divided into two groups: titles that target 10-15 year olds in lower secondary school, and those that target 15-18 year olds in upper secondary school. 

Roche hopes the prize will help redress the translation imbalance between the UK and France. Eighteen percent of all new fiction titles published in France are translations, compared with only 3% to 6% in the UK.

Full details on the annual prize are yet to be unveiled.