The author judging a prestigious prison writing prize yesterday threw her weight behind calls for the government to lift its cruel book ban in time for Christmas.

Award-winning writer Meg Rosoff told the Morning Star that books sent from friends and family can be a “lifeline” for inmates.

Ms Rosoff became the latest high-profile author to call for an immediate end to the book ban after the High Court recently ruled it was unlawful.

She said: “There are very few ways to get out of prison once you’re serving a sentence.

“One of the most important is by reading, entering other worlds, broadening your emotional range — everything that reading books does for every one of us.

“Whatever steps make books ‘safe’ for prisoners should be taken without taking away this lifeline to them all.”

But a Ministry of Justice (MoJ) spokesman yesterday signalled that Justice Secretary Chris Grayling’s ban could continue long after Christmas.

He said that campaigners’ claims that the deadline to appeal against the High Court ruling had passed on Friday were untrue and said the ministry was still considering its options.

His comment will add fuel to the bitter row over the impact of the ban.

At a protest outside the MoJ on Thursday, Howard League for Penal Reform chief executive Frances Crook warned that inmates could take their own lives over Christmas “because they are lonely and afraid and miserable in their cells.”

Her comment was dubbed “ill-informed and offensive” by an MoJ spokeswoman.

But Horrid Henry children’s author Francesca Simon, who attended Thursday’s protest, also labelled the Tory policy “petty.”

And Ms Rosoff spoke out as the deadline for English Pen’s fourth annual writing competition for prisoners, which she is judging, closed at the weekend.

The US-born author, whose latest novel, Picture Me Gone, was published last year, has helped run the charity’s prison writing workshops.

And she told the Star: “I’ve met women in prison who are there because they retaliated against someone who was abusing them — they are not criminals, but victims.

“The discussion I had with them about a book we all read was more urgent and vital than any book club I’ve attended.”