ALICE JOLLY WINS WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION

Alice Jolly has won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for her novel The Matchbox Girl. The work tells the story of Adelheid Brunner, a mute autistic patient of Dr Hans Asperger at Vienna Children's Hospital during the 1930s under Nazi occupation. Jolly received the prize from Matthew Maxwell Scott, a great-great-great-great grandson of Walter Scott, at a ceremony held at the Borders Book Festival near Melrose. Judges described the book as "may be the most unusual book you read this year" and praised its "originality, innovation, ambition".

The prize, administered by the Abbotsford Trust, is now in its 17th year. Previous winners include Sebastian Barry, Robert Harris, Andrea Levy and Hilary Mantel. Jolly was part of the first all-British shortlist for the award. The novel engages with the historical question of Dr Asperger's role; documents uncovered in 2018 suggested he sent child patients to the Am Spiegelgrund clinic in Vienna, where records indicate they were killed under Nazi administration. Jolly said the book began with the question "who was Dr Asperger?" and evolved to focus on his colleagues rather than the doctor himself.

Jolly stated she became focused on "bringing them into the light" and documenting how these colleagues "struggled to hold onto their research, and their principles" whilst facing circumstances she characterised as the "most evil storm of the 20th Century". She described remaining "constantly troubled" by how people who were "not wholly 'evil'" nevertheless became involved in "appalling crimes". The prize recognises the book's "honesty, power and storytelling dexterity". Asperger syndrome, identified in 1944, remained known by the term "autistic psychopathy" until British psychiatrist Lorna Wing introduced the current diagnosis in 1981.