The brainchild of a group of senior women in the Publishing who got together in 1992 to work out why disproportionately few novels by women were making it to the shortlists of the established literary awards, despite research suggesting that women not only wrote more novels than men but also read and borrowed more fiction from libraries.

The Orange Prize was launched in 1996 to promote fiction by women writers. It has been praised by "The Times" as being the only literary award comitted to promoting writers of quality.

It is administered by the Book Trust with an annual prize of £30,000 and a bronze figurine created by Grizel Niven.

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