The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction has announced its shortlist of six titles in contention for this year’s award. The books on this year’s list highlight the funniest novels of the past twelve months, which best evoke the Wodehouse spirit of witty characters and perfectly-timed comic phrases.
The award is the UK’s longest running prize for comic fiction and previous winners have included bestselling novelists Christopher Brookmyre, Nina Stibbe, Paul Torday and Helen Fielding. Last year’s winner was Percival Everett for his bold, provocative novel The Trees.
Bob Mortimer Book Shortlisted for Award, Bruce Dessau, beyondthejoke.co.uk
The shortlisted comic fiction books are:
The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize is the United Kingdom’s first literary award for comic literature. Established in 2000 and named in honour of P. G. Wodehouse, past winners include Paul Torday in 2007 with Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and Marina Lewycka with A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian 2005 and Jasper Fforde for The Well of Lost Plots in 2004. Gary Shteyngart was the first American winner in 2011.
The Prize is sponsored and organized by Bollinger, a producer of sparkling wines from the Champagne region of France, and Everyman Library, a book imprint that is a division of Random House.
Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize, Wikipedia
In 2018, no one won the prize because the 62 nominated books just were not funny enough. [source]
Congratulations to the shortlist for the 2023 BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University, which has now been announced. Chair of judges Katie Thistleton revealed the five selected writers live on Radio 1, Life Hacks, on Sunday 17th September 2023.
The 2023 BBC Young Writers’ Award: Shortlist announced!, BBC
Entering a writing competition is a fantastic way to put your work in front of a publisher. We are therefore hugely excited to be working with Canelo, one of the largest independent digitally focused publishers in Europe and one of the largest UK fiction publishers by volume, to find the best, as yet unpublished, manuscripts.
Manuscripts entered into the I Am In Print Novel Award must be complete, written in English and be between 70,000 and 100,000 words. The award is open to writers globally and novels written for an adult audience in the following genres are welcome: Action thriller, Cosy mystery, Crime, Historical adventure, Horror, Psychological thriller, Romance, and Saga.
https://www.iaminprint.co.uk/novel-award-2023/
Inclusive Books for Children (IBC), a new charity, has launched a website that aims to make “sourcing high quality inclusive children’s books a seamless experience”, supporting parents and caregivers as they buy books. The site contains over 700 freely available expert book reviews and recommendations, and can be
Inclusive Books for Children launches website
navigated to find books “featuring protagonists with specific characteristics, browse booklists curated by
theme or types of representation and much more.”
This one is from slightly further afield – a list of good reading from Belfast.
From classic crime capers to historical retellings, Aine Toner has a varied list of new books this month.
What’s booking: September reads, Belfast Telegraph
Blue Peter has unveiled a new Book badge, designed by one of the UK’s best-known illustrators, Sir Quentin Blake.
The Blue Peter Book badge will be awarded to children aged 5-15 who send in their thoughts on a book, draw a character or scene and share which other books and writers they love.
Blue Peter reveals a new Book Badge, designed by Sir Quentin Blake, BBC Media Centre