Alice Jolly has been awarded the prestigious Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, receiving the £25,000 accolade for her novel, 'The Matchbox Girl'. The book, which judges heralded as potentially 'the most unusual book you read this year', explores a challenging and complex period of history through the eyes of a mute autistic patient under Dr. Hans Asperger in 1930s Vienna, a city then under Nazi occupation.
The prize was presented to Jolly by Matthew Maxwell Scott, a direct descendant of Sir Walter Scott, during a ceremony at the Borders Book Festival near Melrose. Now in its 17th year, the award, managed by the Abbotsford Trust, has previously celebrated works by renowned authors such as Hilary Mantel, Sebastian Barry, Robert Harris, and Andrea Levy, solidifying its position as a significant recognition in the literary world.
Judges commended Jolly's work for its 'originality, innovation, ambition', describing 'The Matchbox Girl' as a 'gripping tour de force' that 'confronts a topic of immense complexity'. They further elaborated on its impact, stating, 'For its honesty, power and storytelling dexterity, our 2026 winner will also be one of the most important.' Notably, this year's shortlist comprised entirely British authors, a first for the award.
Jolly herself reflected on the inspiration behind her novel, expressing a continued fascination with 'that age of old question as to how people who were certainly not wholly 'evil' nevertheless found themselves drawn into appalling crimes'. She explained that her research began following the publication of two non-fiction books in 2018 offering conflicting accounts of Dr. Asperger's life and work, prompting her to ask: 'who was Dr Asperger?'.
Dr. Hans Asperger is widely recognised for his pioneering work in child psychiatry and his identification of Asperger syndrome, a form of autism, in 1944, although the term 'autistic psychopathy' was used until British psychiatrist Lorna Wing introduced the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome in 1981. Jolly revealed that her research led her to discover that Asperger's 'forgotten colleagues' were 'perhaps more interesting than he was', becoming 'obsessed with bringing them into the light' and celebrating their efforts to 'hold onto their research, and their principles, despite finding themselves in the eye of the most evil storm of the 20th Century'.