‘Failure was my thing’: Women’s prize winner Virginia Evans on her long journey to success

Virginia Evans won the Women's Prize for Fiction this week for her debut novel, The Correspondent. Evans, an American author, stated that "failure was my thing" and described receiving "thousands of rejections" over two decades before her novel was published. The Correspondent is being adapted into a film by Lionsgate, with Jane Fonda set to portray the titular character, Sybil Van Antwerp. Evans is slated to serve as one of the film's producers and will make a cameo appearance. Richard Curtis, a director known for romantic comedies, was among those congratulating Evans at the prize ceremony in London. Evans expressed admiration for Curtis's film Notting Hill, calling it her "favourite movie of all time."