The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

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O'Hagan attacks Richard and Judy culture

18.08.08

The novelist Andrew O'Hagan has accused Richard and Judy's Book Clubs of treating their readers as stupid. The attack was made at an Edinburgh International Book Festival event where O'Hagan criticised the presenters' limited selection of titles and accused them of missing a unique opportunity to promote good writing to a vast audience.

"We have an industry where we have a Richard & Judy culture," he said at a debate on whether or not the novel is overrated. "Certain totemic elements, certain gongs must been struck for a novel to be worthy of presentation to a mass audience. This is a coarsening."

"[The Richard & Judy book club] is a wasted opportunity . . .  They have a massive captive audience of people who aren't completely undiscerning; they aren't stupid. Why are they treating them as if they are stupid? There is an opportunity to use that connection to turn a generation on to good writing."

 

Guardian

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