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Rachel Johnson beat Alastair Campbell to the dubious honour of winning the Bad Sex in Fiction award. The Literary Review's annual award was presented to Johnson for her novel Shire Hell last night (25th November), while a lifetime achievement award was also given to John Updike after the American author realised the "unique achievement" of four consecutive nominations for the award.
Johnson, the sister of London mayor, Boris Johnson, said it was an "absolute honour" to win, according to the Guardian, taking her place alongside former winners including Norman Mailer, Sebastian Faulks and Tom Wolfe. "I'm not feeling remotely grumpy about it. I know that men with literary reputations to polish might find it insulting," she said, "but if you've had a book published in the year any attention is welcome, even if it's slightly dubious attention of this sort."
The other contenders for the award included Campbell's All in the Mind (Hutchinson), The Gate of Air by James Buchan (MacLehose Press) and Sashenka by Simon Montefiore (Bantam Press).