19.15pm, London, 4 June 2008 - British author Rose Tremain has won the thirteenth Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction with her tenth novel The Road Home (Chatto & Windus).

At an awards ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London, hosted by Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction Co-Founder and Honorary Director, Kate Mosse, the 2008 Chair of Judges, Kirsty Lang, presented the author with the GBP30,000 prize and the 'Bessie', a limited edition bronze figurine. Both are anonymously endowed.

Kirsty Lang, Chair of Judges, said: "The judges felt that this was a powerfully imagined story and a wonderful feat of emotional empathy told with great warmth and humour."

The Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction was set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote fiction written by women throughout the world to the widest range of readers possible. The Orange Prize is awarded to the best novel of the year written in English by a woman.

The judges for the 2008 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction are:

• Kirsty Lang (Chair), Journalist & Broadcaster
• Lisa Allardice, Editor of Guardian Review
• Philippa Gregory, Novelist
• Bel Mooney, Novelist, Journalist & Children's Author

Hattie Magee, Head of Partnerships for Orange, commented:
"Women's fiction has gone from strength to strength - we are delighted there is so much support from the public and the media for such a powerful literature platform. This year's Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction has seen another exceptional shortlist, but in the end, there can be only one winner -many congratulations to Rose Tremain."

Rose Tremain

Rose Tremain writes novels, short stories and screenplays. She lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer Richard Holmes. Her books have been translated into numerous languages and have won many prizes, including the Whitbread Novel Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Prix Femina Etranger, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Angel Literary Awards and the Sunday Express Book of the Year. Tremain's novel, The Colour, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2004. Last month, The Road Home won Best Fiction category at the second annual Good Housekeeping Book Awards and three of her novels are currently in development as films.

The Road Home

Like so many others, Lev is on his way from Eastern Europe to Britain, seeking work. He is a tiny part of a vast diaspora that is changing British society. But Lev is also a singular man with a vivid outsider's vision of the place we call home.

Lev begins with no job, little money and few words of English. He has only his memories, his hopes and a certain alarming skill with the preparation of food. Behind him loom the figures of his dead wife, his beloved daughter and his outrageous friend Rudy who - dreaming of the wealthy West - lives largely for his battered Chevrolet.

In front of Lev lies the deep strangeness of the British: their hostile streets, clannish pubs, lonely flats and their obsession with celebrity. London holds out the alluring possibilities of friendship, sex, money and a new career; but, more than this, of human understanding, a sense of belonging.

Previous winners of the Orange Prize are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Half of a Yellow Sun (2007), Zadie Smith for On Beauty (2006), Lionel Shriver for We Need to Talk About Kevin (2005), Andrea Levy for Small Island (2004), Valerie Martin for Property (2003), Ann Patchett for Bel Canto (2002), Kate Grenville for The Idea of Perfection (2001), Linda Grant for When I Lived in Modern Times (2000), Suzanne Berne for A Crime in the Neighbourhood (1999), Carol Shields for Larry's Party (1998), Anne Michaels for Fugitive Pieces (1997), and Helen Dunmore for A Spell of Winter (1996).

Joanna Kavenna Wins 2008 Orange Broadband Award for New Writers

The Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction awards ceremony also saw the announcement of the 2008 Orange Broadband Award for New Writers. Established in 2005 as part of the Orange Prize 10th year celebrations, the emphasis of the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers is on emerging talent and the evidence of future potential. Chair of Judges, Shami Chakrabarti, presented a GBP10,000 bursary, provided by Arts Council England, to Joanna Kavenna for her novel Inglorious (Faber and Faber).

The 2008 award ceremony took place in The Ballroom of the Royal Festival Hall. Guests toasted the winner announcement at a champagnedrinks reception courtesy of Taittinger.