'Let's have men-only book prize too'

Published on Tuesday 15 April 2008 22:14

ONE of the six authors shortlisted for the women-only Orange Prize yesterday backed calls for a new literary award – for men.

Sadie Jones was speaking after critics of the 12-year-old prize complained loudly of sex discrimination. A men's prize could help get more boys reading, she said.

Jones' book The Outcast, set in 1950s England, was one of three debut novels shortlisted yesterday – though veteran writer Rose Tremain was nominated for her tenth novel, and Charlotte Mendelson for her third.

Jones, 40, said she was "extremely flattered and proud" to make her first literary shortlist, saying her publishers had put her book forward after its publication in February.

"Any prize draws attention to books," she said. "I don't think equal opportunity comes into it."

But she went on: "I think there should be a literary prize for men. I have a son, and you hear a lot about boys not reading. Anything that adds interest or glamour for boys can only be good sense."

The Orange Broadband Prize for fiction, with a top prize of 30,000, was conceived in 1992 by a group of publishers and journalists who felt women novelists had often been passed over for the major literary prizes. The first prize was awarded to Helen Dunmore in 1996.

The prize has sparked frequent rows, but this year the complaints were more vociferous. The novelist Tim Lott went public last month, calling it "discriminatory, sexist, and perverse". The writer AS Byatt – Dame Antonia Susan Byatt – called it an unnecessary and sexist prize, and said her publisher had been forbidden to submit her novels.

It is possible the Orange prize has achieved its goal. A recent survey by the Bookseller magazine found 76 per cent of people working in publishing were female, while figures show women are the biggest book buyers, driving the growth in the market.

Joel Rickett, the deputy editor of The Bookseller, said: "Every literary prize has boundaries. If anyone wants to set up a men's fiction prize and find a sponsor, why not? I don't think there's a burning need, but anything that can draw attention to books is grist to the mill."

The Scottish author Allan Massie highlighted the number of women who had won the Booker Prize, Britain's top literary award, from Nadine Gordimer in 1974 to Kiran Desai in 2006. He was a judge in 1988 when the female author PD James chaired the panel, and he said: "I don't think there was any anti-female discrimination."

SHORTLISTED AUTHORS

The Orange Broadband Prize is open to any woman writing in English, whatever her nationality, country of residence, age or subject matter.

SADIE JONES: The Outcast

Jones, 40, a London screenwriter, explores dark secrets in post-war Surrey in her first novel. Lewis Aldridge, as a child, is the only witness to his mother's death by drowning. His return home in his late teens triggers an implosion in his family and community.

PATRICIA WOOD: Lottery

US author Patricia Wood's debut novel was inspired by her father's lottery win. It tells the story of an intellectually-challenged 31-year-old whose family comes out of the woodwork after he wins a prize of $12 million.

NANCY HUSTON: Fault Lines

Canadian Nancy Huston is shortlisted for her 11th novel, Fault Lines, which is narrated by four generations of the same family.

CHARLOTTE MENDELSON: When We Were Bad

British author Charlotte Mendelson is up for her third novel, about a woman rabbi whose family starts to fall apart after her eldest son bolts from his own wedding.

HEATHER O'NEILL: Lullabies for Little Criminals

Canadian Heather O'Neill is in the running for her first novel. It is narrated by Baby, a 12-year-old girl being raised by her heroin-addicted father in Montreal's red-light district.

ROSE TREMAIN: The Road Home

Prize-winning British author Rose Tremain is shortlisted for her tenth novel, the story of an eastern European immigrant struggling with just a few words of English on the hostile streets of London, with dark memories behind him.