Stuart Kelly: The Browser: Stinkers and the Booker

Published on Friday 11 September 2009 18:30

It's not exactly a foregone conclusion, but it will be a real turn up for the books (and shock for the bookies) if Hilary Mantel, below, doesn't win this year's Man Booker, seeing off JM Coetzee, AS Byatt, Simon Mawer, Sarah Waters and Adam Foulds. Chair of the judges James Naughtie injected some much-needed drama into the announcement of the shortlist by saying: "Just because you're a former winner of the prize doesn't mean you can't write a bad book – and

Monster hits

Surprisingly left off the longlist was Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter, the latest in the fad for "mash-up" fiction, kicked off by Pride And Prejudice And Zombies. London 1838, and Victoria is crowned with the orb, sceptre and "an arsenal of blood-stained weaponry". The volume promises "lashings of glistening entrails". If you're looking for a more literary Hallowe'en read, try Kelly Link's Pretty Monsters.

Czech this out

Flicking through the Bookseller's Autumn Buyer's Guide, I came across a very odd little piece of categorising. In the "Science Fiction and Fantasy" section, sandwiched between The Mammoth Book Of Wolf Men and Star Wars: Darth Bane: Dynasty Of Evil was... The Trial by Franz Kafka. A cover showing Josef K seeing off werewolves with a lightsabre might do wonders for sales.