'Let's have men-only book prize too'

By Tim Cornwell writing in The Scotsman:

ONE of the six authors shortlisted for the women-only Orange Prize yesterday backed calls for a new literary award – for men.Sadie Jones was speaking after critics of the 12-year-old prize complained loudly of sex discrimination. A men's prize could help get more boys reading, she said.

Jones' book The Outcast, set in 1950s England, was one of three debut novels shortlisted yesterday – though veteran writer Rose Tremain was nominated for her tenth novel, and Charlotte Mendelson for her third.

Jones, 40, said she was "extremely flattered and proud" to make her first literary shortlist, saying her publishers had put her book forward after its publication in February. "Any prize draws attention to books," she said. "I don't think equal opportunity comes into it."But she went on: "I think there should be a literary prize for men. I have a son, and you hear a lot about boys not reading. Anything that adds interest or glamour for boys can only be good sense."

The Orange Broadband Prize for fiction, with a top prize of £30,000, was conceived in 1992 by a group of publishers and journalists who felt women novelists had often been passed over for the major literary prizes.

The first prize was awarded to Helen Dunmore in 1996.The prize has sparked frequent rows, but this year the complaints were more vociferous.

The novelist Tim Lott went public last month, calling it "discriminatory, sexist, and perverse". The writer AS Byatt called it an unnecessary and sexist prize, and said her publisher had been forbidden to submit her novels.

For the full story from The Scotsman go here,