Bennett listed for comic honour

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

By 1stAngel

Author Alan Bennett has made a comic fiction prize shortlist for his book The Uncommon Reader.

The story, which sees the Queen visit a travelling library when it calls on Buckingham Palace, is up for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize.

Will Self’s account of the West’s conscience after 9/11, Joe Dunthorne, Julian Gough, Garrison Keillor and John Walsh are also nominated.

The winner will be announced at the Hay literary Festival next month.

‘Enjoyable’

The author’s prize includes having a locally-bred Gloucestershire Old Spot pig named after them, which will attend the ceremony.

The award is given out annually to the best comic novel of the previous 12 months.

Everyman’s publisher David Campbell said: “This is a brilliant and exciting shortlist. All these titles are exceptionally enjoyable books to read.”

Among the judges on this year’s panel are BBC Radio 4 Today programme presenter James Naughtie and Hay Festival director Peter Florence.

Alan Bennett’s well-known works include stage play The History Boys and the Talking Heads monologues which were shown on BBC television.

The other novels shortlisted are Self’s The Butt; Dunthorne’s Submarine; Gough’s Jude: Level 1; Keillor’s Pontoon, and Walsh’s Sunday at the Cross Bones.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/entertainment/7371747.stm

Published: 2008/04/28 15:32:48 GMT

Tags: Author Alan Bennett, Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize, The Uncommon Reader

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 12:58 and is filed under Book Club . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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	I live in Manchester, UK and spend my time working for the arts. My actual profession is Artist, but I spend more time now reporting and promoting artists. I also write for Our Gym (co.uk) and Galileo Was Right (com)
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