Alice Jolly Wins Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction with 'The Matchbox Girl'

Alice Jolly has been awarded the 2026 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for her novel 'The Matchbox Girl', which judges described as 'the most unusual book you read this year'. The book centers on Adelheid Brunner, a mute autistic patient of Dr. Hans Asperger at the Vienna Children's Hospital during the 1930s Nazi occupation. Jolly received the prize from Matthew Maxwell Scott, a descendant of Sir Walter Scott, at the Borders Book Festival near Melrose. The prize, run by the Abbotsford Trust, is in its 17th year; past winners include Sebastian Barry, Robert Harris, Andrea Levy, and Hilary Mantel. Jolly was part of the first all-British shortlist for the award. She said the prize validates historical fiction as 'a really serious type of literature' and will transform her writing life. The novel was inspired by 2018 non-fiction books that revealed conflicting accounts of Dr. Asperger, who identified Asperger syndrome in 1944 but was later found to have sent child patients to the Am Spiegelgrund clinic, where they were killed by the Nazi regime. Jolly focused on Asperger's forgotten colleagues, aiming to 'bring them into the light' and celebrate their struggle to maintain principles amid atrocity.