Irish debut author Eimear McBride has won the 2014 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction with her first novel A Girl is a Half-formed Thing (Galley Beggar/Faber and Faber).

At an awards ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London - hosted by novelist and Chair of the Women's Prize for Fiction board, Kate Mosse - the 2014 Chair of Judges, Helen Fraser, presented the author with the £30,000 prize and the 'Bessie', a limited edition bronze figurine. Both are anonymously endowed.

Helen Fraser said that the winning book was: "An amazing and ambitious first novel that impressed the judges with its inventiveness and energy. This is an extraordinary new voice - this novel will move and astonish the reader."

This is the first year that the Prize has been sponsored by Baileys, and Syl Saller, Chief Marketing Officer for Diageo gave a moving speech about the power of reading, and to the winner said: "Congratulations to Eimear McBride whose winning book, A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, embodies the excellence, originality and outstanding talent that the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction serves to celebrate."

Shortlisted authors

Hannah Kent, Burial Rites (Picador)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah (Fourth Estate)
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland (Bloomsbury)
Audrey Magee, The Undertaking (Atlantic Books)
Eimear McBride, A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing (Gallery Beggar Press)
Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch (Little, Brown) (not pictured)

Longlisted titles

The books on the longlist were:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah (Fourth Estate)
Margaret Atwood, Maddaddam (Bloomsbury)
Suzanne Berne, The Dogs of Littlefield (Fig Tree)
Fatima Bhutto, The Shadow of the Crescent Moon (Viking)
Claire Cameron, The Bear ( Harvill Secker)
Lea Carpenter, Eleven Days (Two Roads)
M.J. Carter, The Strangler Vine (Fig Tree)
Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries (Granta)
Deborah Kay Davies, Reasons She Goes to the Woods (Oneworld)
Elizabeth Gilbert, The Signature of All Things (Bloomsbury)
Hannah Kent, Burial Rites (Picador)
Rachel Kushner, The Flamethrowers (Harvill Secker)
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland (Bloomsbury)
Audrey Magee, The Undertaking (Atlantic Books)
Eimear McBride, A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing (Gallery Beggar Press)
Charlotte Mendelson, Almost English (Mantle)
Anna Quindlen, Still Life With Bread Crumbs (Hutchinson)
Elizabeth Strout, The Burgess Boys (Simon and Schuster)
Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch (Little, Brown)
Evie Wyld, All the Birds, Singing (Jonathan Cape)

About the prize

Set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote international fiction by women throughout the world to the widest range of readers possible, the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction is awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman. Any woman writing in English - whatever her nationality, country of residence, age or subject matter - is eligible.

The winner will receive a cheque for £30,000 and a limited edition bronze known as a 'Bessie', created and donated by the artist Grizel Niven. Both are anonymously endowed.

Get involved

We've selected 12 reading groups to shadow the prize - visit Reading Groups for Everyone to find out what they thought about the shortlisted titles.

The Baileys Womens Prize for Fiction have also launched #ThisBook, where people can recommend a book written by a woman that has made a real impact on them. Discover some of the wonderful titles that have been recommended.

For more information, including a list of all the previous winners, visit the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction website.

Have you read any of the titles on the shortlist? Was Eimear McBride your choice for the Prize? Let us know what you think via twitter and facebook.