Tremain takes the Orange Prize

Rose Tremain has won the Orange Prize for women’s fiction for The Road Home, her tale of an immigrant from eastern Europe coming to terms with life in London. Tremain had been the hot favourite to win - Ladbrokes stopped taking bets on Tuesday after a run of money left her 1-2 favourite – but as Kirsty Lang, the chairman of the judging panel, said, although Tremain has although often been up for awards she has never won one until now, making her "always the bridesmaid, never the bride".

Accepting the £30,000 prize at the Royal Festival Hall, Tremain defended the notion of literary prize open only to women against its – mainly male – critics. She said: "Come on you guys, stop grumping. This is a prize which celebrates women's fiction. In this year when A L Kennedy has won the Costa, when Anne Enright has won the Booker and when Doris Lessing has won the Nobel, I think there's a lot to celebrate."

The Road Home tells the story of Lev, an Eastern European who travels to Britain to seek work following the death of his wife. He arrives with no money and little English, and the novel charts his struggle to adapt to life in an alien land, first in London and then in rural Suffolk.