Stacey Halls’ Mrs England has been long-listed for The Portico Prize for Literature, the UK’s only award for outstanding Northern writing.

The £10,000 biennial prize is open to new works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry that best evoke the spirit of the North of England. This year’s longlist of 14 books explores multiple themes – family, friendship, class, race, identity, masculinity, sexuality, the meaning of place and memories of the past – all connected by the spirit of the North.

The longlist of 14 books was selected by the Portico Prize’s Society of Readers and Writers, an appointed group of 21 book lovers and literary enthusiasts with connections to the North of England. A shortlist of six books – to be announced on Tuesday 7 December – will be selected by a panel of judges, chaired by Gary Younge, the award-winning author, broadcaster and a Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester. He is joined by the broadcaster Melanie Sykes (also Editor-in-Chief of The Frank Magazine and co-presenter of the Sykes & Savidge Book Club); the award-winning author and former Portico Prize winner Sarah Hall; the poet and essayist and former Young People’s Laureate for London Momtaza Mehri; and Anita Singh, arts and entertainment editor at The Daily Telegraph.

Mrs England is a portrait of an Edwardian marriage, weaving an enthralling story of men and women, power and control, courage, truth and the very darkest deception. Set against the atmospheric West Yorkshire landscape, Stacey Halls' third novel proves her one of the most exciting and compelling new storytellers of our times.