Former Blue Peter presenter shortlisted for Bad Sex award

Books from Janet Ellis, Ethan Canin and Robert Seethaler have been nominated for the Bad Sex in Fiction Award alongside Gayle Forman, Tom Connolly and Erri de Luca.

The former Blue Peter presenter, Ellis, was nominated for her debut novel The Butcher’s Hook (Two Roads). American author Canin was shortlisted for an extract from his novel A Doubter’s Almanac (Random House) and Austrian author Seethaler was chosen for a passage from The Tobacconist (Picador), which is set in 1937 Austria.

American novelist Forman made the shortlist for a passage from Leave Me (Simon & Schuster) and European prize for literature winner de Luca was nominated for an extract from The Day Before Happiness (Allen Lane). Connolly’s Men Like Air (Myriad Editions) rounds out the shortlist.

The Literary Review, which administers the prize, said that while Ian McEwan’s Nutshell (Jonathan Cape) and Eimear McBride’s The Lesser Bohemians (Faber) had both been nominated by readers they “failed to make the grade”.

“Several” passages from Jonathan Safran Foer’s Here I Am (Hamish Hamilton) was also brought to the attention of the judges, but his writing about sex was ultimately found to be not “egregious” enough, according to The Guardian.

Donald Trump was also nominated by readers for his “locker-room talk”, but the judges said it “had to be discounted on the grounds that the award only covers fiction”.

The winner will be announced on 30th November.

Last year’s award was won by Morrissey for List of the Lost (Penguin Classics).

Picture: © Leigh Quinnell