Morrissey’s debut novel wins Bad Sex in Fiction award

First-time novelist Morrissey has won this year’s Bad Sex in Fiction award for his debut book, entitled List of the Lost.

Morrissey: Bad sex award. Picture: Getty Images

The judges said they were influenced by an “ecstatic scene” involving two of the characters in the former Smiths frontman’s book.

The singer was unable to attend yesterday’s ceremony because of touring commitments.

List of the Lost, which was slammed by critics when it was published this year, follows four Boston relay runners who are cursed by an old man in the woods.

Morrissey’s work triumphed over a varied shortlist, which included George Pelecanos’s The Martini Shot, Joshua Cohen’s Book of Numbers and Erica Jong’s Fear of Dying. Previous winners of the prize, established by The Literary Review in 1993, include Melvyn Bragg, Norman Mailer and AA Gill.

Last year, the award was won by Ben Okri. The aim is to highlight poorly written passages of sexual description in modern fiction to discourage them. It doesn’t cover p­ornographic or erotic literature.