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Edward St Aubyn has won the fifteenth Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for his satire on the world of literary prizes, Lost For Words (Picador).
The novel centres on the judging process for the fictional Elysian prize for literature. The judges are MP Malcolm Craig, media personality Jo Cross, Oxbridge academic Vanessa Shaw and Penny Feathers of the Foreign Office. Meanwhile, a host of authors are desperate for Elysian glory, including brilliant writer and serial heartbreaker Katherine Burns, lovelorn debut novelist Sam Black, and Sonny, convinced that his magnum opus, The Mulberry Elephant, will take the literary world by storm.
The judges for the 2014 prize were: broadcaster and author, James Naughtie; Everyman’s Library publisher, David Campbell; and director of the Hay Festival, Peter Florence. Campbell said the winner was “a wonderfully funny send up of literary prizes and much of contemporary cultural life”.
St Aubyn commented on his win: “The only thing I was sure of when I was writing this satire on literary prizes was that it wouldn't win any prizes. I was wrong. I had overlooked the one prize with a sense of humour.”
He added: “The challenge I set myself with Lost For Words was to see if I could enjoy writing. In that, at least, I succeeded. The fact this novel has given pleasure to others - and in particular the judges of the Bollinger Everyman Woodhouse Prize for Comic Fiction - is an encouragement for which I am delighted and grateful.”
St Aubyn will be presented with his prizes at the Hay Festival on 24th May. He will receive a jeroboam of Bollinger Special Cuvée, a case of Bollinger La Grande Année, a set of the Everyman’s Library PG Wodehouse collection and a locally-bred Gloucestershire Old Spot pig to be named after his winning novel. He will also appear in conversation with William Sieghart at the festival.
Previous winners of the prize include Ian McEwan, DBC Pierre, Terry Pratchett and, most recently, double winner Howard Jacobson.