The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

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Hostile to fresh talent?

07.01.08

Mark Lawson, writing in the Guardian, argues that the inclusion of Catherine O'Flynn on the Costa award "seems to confirm the view that the business is hostile to fresh talent". He writes: "Increasingly, judgments involve not literary quality but commercial prospects."

"This has happened largely because of a shift in the priorities of libraries, which used to be a guaranteed haven for several thousand copies of hardbacks that take a bit of brain work, but which are now rapidly ceding shelf-space to Citizens Advice Bureau leaflets or DVDs. And pressure on leisure time has made both producers and consumers of entertainment reluctant to sample a product that does not have some advance buzz."

Guardian

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