You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Will Self has won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction for his latest novel, The Butt (Bloomsbury).
Self, who beat fellow shortlisted authors Alan Bennett, Joe Dunthorne, Julian Gough, Garrison Keillor and John Walsh, was presented with his prize at the Guardian Hay Festival on Saturday (24th May).
The prize is given to the best comic novel published in the last twelve months.
Everyman publisher David Campbell said: “Will Self is a wonderfully brilliant, witty writer and I’m delighted he has won the ninth Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse.”
The judges for this year’s prize were Campbell, broadcaster and author James Naughtie, and Director of the Guardian Hay Festival, Peter Florence.
Self received a jeroboam of Bollinger Special Cuvée, a set of the Everyman Wodehouse, a case of Bollinger La Grande Année, and a locally-bred Gloucestershire Old Spot pig named after his novel.
The newly-named pig was unable to make the traditional visit to the festival to meet the author due to restrictions on animal movements because of the threat of the Bluetongue virus. The two met virtually via a webcam.