Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction -shortlist announced

 Howard Jacobson and Michael Frayn go head-to-head for second win of UK’s leading comic fiction prize

Howard Jacobson and Michael Frayn are going for a second bite of the cherry as they appear on the shortlist of this year’s Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction announced today, Thursday 4 April 2013. They are joined on what the judges consider to be an exceptionally strong shortlist by Joseph Connolly, Deborah Moggach and Helen DeWitt.

The 2013 shortlist was selected following many hours of deliberation and glasses of Bollinger by the judges. As soon as white smoke indicated the selection of this year’s funniest fiction, Jim Naughtie headed straight to Rome to cover the Pope’s inauguration mass for the BBC.

Three authors have been appeared on the prize list before. Howard Jacobson won the first ever Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize in 2000 for his novel The Mighty Waltzer, whilst Frayn won the prize two years later for his novel Spies (2002). Jacobson was also shortlisted for Kalooki Nights in 2006, whilst Deborah Moggach was shortlisted in 2004 for These Foolish Things.

Now in its 14th year, the prize strives to recognise the best comic novel of the last 12 months. Past winners have included critically acclaimed writers such as Will Self, Ian McEwan and, most recently, Terry Pratchett for Snuff. The shortlist spans a variety of themes, locations and time periods, but each novel captures the comic spirit of P.G. Wodehouse.

The five shortlisted novels are:

·         Zoo Time by Howard Jacobson (Bloomsbury)

Zoo Time is the ‘seriously funny’ (Daily Telegraph) tale of Guy Ableman, a writer in torment – both over his affections for both his wife and mother-in-law, and the terminal state of literature. As well as winning the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize in 2000, Jacobson has won the Man Booker Prize (2010) for The Finkler Question.

·         Skios by Michael Frayn (Faber & Faber)

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2012, Skios is a farce about a case of mistaken identity which plays out over a sunlit island of Skios. ‘The result is a wonderfully diverting entertainment, something Wodehouse might have written if Blandings Castle had been perched on the edge of the Aegean.’ (Financial Times)

·         England’s Lane by Joseph Connolly (Quercus)

Described as ‘a masterpiece’ (The Daily Mail) and ‘a weird mix of Dickens and Martin Amis… quite impossible to put down’ (The Times), this latest novel from critically acclaimed and internationally bestselling author Joseph Connolly is a ‘darkly humorous’ (Time Out) account of three married couples living in England’s Lane in the winter of 1959, and the sins hidden behind the suburban livelihoods of the town’s ironmonger, sweetshop and butcher

·         Heartbreak Hotel by Deborah Moggach (Chatto & Windus)

From the author of Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Tulip Fever, Heartbreak Hotel tells the story of Russell ‘Buffy’ Buffery and his new money-making wheeze, ‘Courses for Divorces’. Currently being adapted into a series for the BBC, Heartbreak Hotel is told with ‘all the warmth and humour you’d expect from Moggach’ (The Guardian).

·         Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt (And Other Stories)

DeWitt’s second novel is an ‘uproariously funny’ (Wall Street Journal) tale following failing salesman Joe as he launches an outrageous plan to stamp out sexual harassment in the workplace. Her critically acclaimed debut novel The Last Samurai has so far been published in 20 countries.

The judges of the prize are: Jim Naughtie, broadcaster and author; David Campbell, Everyman’s Library publisher and Peter Florence, Director of The Telegraph Hay Festival. David Campbell comments on the shortlist:

“This is one of the strongest shortlists I have seen – all 5 novels are truly brilliantly funny.”

As is customary, this year’s winner will be announced just ahead of the Hay festival in late May, followed by an audience with the winner during the festival. The winner will receive a jeroboam of Bollinger Special Cuvée, a case of Bollinger La Grande Année and a set of the Everyman Wodehouse collection which now totals over 80 books. The winner will also be honoured with the presentation of a locally-bred Gloucestershire Old Spot pig, who will be named after their winning title.