Considered a risky venture, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit was first published in paperback and even then in a limited run by Pandora Press in 1985. The germ of an idea from an unsuccessful job interview, the novel found a popular market in small-scale booksellers until the award of the Whitbread Prize for the best debut novel (1985) precipitated an order from the major national chain, W. H. Smith (Winterson, 1985: xiii). The novel’s irreverent style of “Northern” humour, and fantasy and lyricism blended with structural experimentation, elicited the famous comment from Gore Vidal that Winterson was “the most interesting young writer I have read in twenty years” (Winterson, 1985). The seeds of her subsequent innovative passion for words and poetic voice are all evident in this early work.
An adaptation written by Winterson...
1667 words
Citation: Cox, Katharine. "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 April 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3015, accessed 09 June 2026.]
