French Panel
Philippe Claudel (Chair)
Philippe Claudel is a French novelist, screenwriter and academic. A graduate in modern literature and former lecturer in literature at the University of Lorraine, he is the author of a body of work translated into around forty languages. Les Âmes grises (Stock, 2003), winner of the Prix Renaudot, was translated into English as Grey Souls (Knopf). Le Rapport de Brodeck (Stock, 2007), winner of the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, was published in English as Brodeck’s Report (MacLehose Press). His debut feature film as director, I’ve Loved You So Long, starring Kristin Scott Thomas, received both the César Award for Best First Feature Film and the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language, reflecting a body of work at the crossroads of French and British cultures. A member of the Académie Goncourt since 2012, he has served as its President since 2024. His latest novel, Wanted, was published by Stock in 2025.
- Picture: DR
Leïla Slimani
Leïla Slimani is a Franco-Moroccan novelist and journalist. Her novel Chanson douce (Gallimard) won the Prix Goncourt in 2016 and was translated into English as Lullaby (Faber & Faber), later adapted for cinema. She is also the author of Dans le jardin de l’ogre (Gallimard, 2014), translated as Adèle (Penguin), and of the Le Pays des autres trilogy (Gallimard), translated as The Country of Others (Penguin). Her books are translated worldwide. She was appointed Personal Representative of the President of the French Republic for the promotion of the French language and Francophonie, and chaired the International Booker Prize jury in 2023.
- Picture: Francesca Mantovani®Gallimard
Augustin Trapenard
Augustin Trapenard is a journalist. Born in Paris in 1979, he spent part of his childhood in Wimbledon, England. A graduate of the École Normale Supérieure and holder of an agrégation in English, he taught English and American literature at the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon and focused his research on the works of Emily Brontë and the concept of authorship in the Victorian era. For eight years, he produced and presented the radio programme Boomerang on France Inter and worked for Canal+. For the past four years, he has presented La Grande Librairie on French public service television, the only prime-time programme entirely dedicated to literature and thought. An avid reader and promoter of literature, he is one of the most influential voices on the French literary landscape.
British Panel
Elif Shafak (Chair)
Elif Shafak is an award-winning British and Turkish novelist whose work has been translated into fifty-eight languages. Author of twenty-one books, including thirteen novels, she enjoys an international readership. Her novel The Island of Missing Trees (Viking), translated into French as L’Île aux arbres disparus (Flammarion), was shortlisted for the Costa Award, the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World (Viking), translated into French as 10 minutes et 38 secondes dans ce monde étrange (Flammarion), was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The Forty Rules of Love (Soufi, mon amour) was selected among the BBC’s 100 Novels That Shaped Our World. President of the Royal Society of Literature, she has been awarded the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the British Academy President’s Medal. Her next novel, In One Brief Moment All Eternity, will be published on 15 October.
Ken Follett
Ken Follett is one of the world’s most widely read authors, with more than 160 million copies sold across over 80 countries and 33 languages. His ties to France are deep and longstanding: following the success of Eye of the Needle (1978, Edgar Award winner), he settled with his family in the South of France to devote himself fully to writing, returning there every year since the 1970s. Much of his work draws on French history, including The Pillars of the Earth, inspired by the work of French medieval historian Jean Gimpel; World Without End, written in collaboration with historians from Mont-Saint-Michel; and A Column of Fire, which recounts the French Wars of Religion and the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Following the Notre-Dame fire in 2019, he published a non-fiction work of the same name, donating all proceeds to the Fondation du Patrimoine for the cathedral’s restoration. Hugely popular among French readers, he was made Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and promoted to Officier de la Légion d’Honneur in November 2025. He became a French citizen on 13 November 2025. Ken Follett is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
- Picture: Olivier Favre
Hollie McNish
Hollie McNish is a bestselling British poet and author. Her collection Nobody Told Me, winner of the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, was translated into French as Je souhaite seulement que tu fasses quelque chose de toi (Le Castor Astral). She has published several poetry collections, including Cherry Pie, Plum and Lobster, as well as an adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone. She performs her poetry internationally in English, French and Spanish. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
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