What a year it has been in the literary world.

From Zadie Smith swiftly reacting to the pandemic with a new set of powerful essays, to Maggie O’Farrell taking the Women’s Prize with her eighth novel Hamnet, and Marcus Rashford launching a book club for children from disadvantaged backgrounds – books have once more brought light during a dark and worrying time.

For a lot of people, escaping in a good book has been the perfect way to switch off and relax in lockdown. We’ve been stocking up on new novels and memoirs from independent bookshops, constantly topping up that reading pile on the bedside table.

That’s why bookworms will be excited to hear that the Booker Prize for Fiction 2020 winner has just been announced, giving us another reason to order a new novel.

Booker Prize 2020 winner: add this book to your lockdown reading pile, pronto