India Knight, James Hannaham and Bob Mortimer are among the writers in ther running to have a pig named after their novel in this year’s Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction.
The award seeks to recognise the funniest new novels that best evoke the spirit of PG Wodehouse’s witty characters and comic timing. This year’s shortlist features a “spectrum” of “farce, satire, parody, and a gentler, witty geniality”, said judging chair and Hay festival founder Peter Florence.
Darling by India Knight
Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta by James Hannaham
Mother Hens by Sophie McCartney
Murder at Crime Manor by Fergus Craig
Teen Couple Have Fun Outdoors by Aravind Jayan
The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer
The winner will have a Gloucester Old Spot pig named after their winning book, an impressive amount of champagne and the complete set of the Everyman’s Library PG Wodehouse collection. The judges chose the shortlist from 73 submissions published between 1 June 2022 and 31 May 2023.
Knight is shortlisted for Darling, a retelling of Nancy Mitford’s romantic comedy The Pursuit of Love. “Darling is a very human book, full of feelings and heartbreak and humour and joy,” wrote Ella Risbridger in her Guardian review. Judge and publisher David Campbell called the novel a “delicious update” of Mitford’s novel.
Aravind Jayan is shortlisted for his debut novel, Teen Couple Have Fun Outdoors, in which a clip of the eponymous protagonists engaging in “sex-adjacent” activities goes viral. The novel is “set in a refreshingly specific modern Indian context and relayed in a startlingly simple, pithy and hilarious voice,” said judge and comedian Sindhu Vee. In her Guardian review, Sana Goyal wrote that Jayan’s book is “a fresh take on the family drama, the internet novel and the comedy of manners”.
The second debut novel on the list is Mortimer’s The Satsuma Complex. It follows a man’s attempt to track down a girl he once went on a date with who suddenly disappeared. Judge and Hay festival president Justin Albert said that the novel “is one of the funniest and most entertaining books of the last 10 years. That rarest of rare creations; a superbly comic book that also tells a blisteringly good page-turning story.”
Hannaham is shortlisted for Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta, about a transgender woman who re-enters life on the outside after more than 20 years of incarceration. “This is savage, shocking humour that plays with tone and texture and tale to make the reader give more of a shit than we’d ever imagined,” said Florence.
The next shortlisted title, Mother Hens by Sophie McCartney, is a black comedy that takes readers on a hen do in Ibiza. “Hold on to your pelvic floor as Sophie McCartney paints a vivid picture of motherhood, friendship and revenge, served up in a margarita glass,” said judge and comedian Pippa Evans.
And finally, Murder at Crime Manor, by Fergus Craig, is a crime fiction parody and the follow-up to his 2021 book Once Upon a Crime. Craig’s “detective Roger LeCarre is lovable, funny and absurd,” said judge and broadcaster James Naughtie. “This book is Wodehousian in spirit and style. You laugh out loud, and you wonder how it is that in a staged country-house setting, where murder is done, you can still care. And then you realise that you’ve enjoyed it. A fictional romp to savour.”
The winner will be announced in November at a reception in London. Previous winners include Nina Stibbe, Terry Pratchett, Ian McEwan and Jonathan Coe. The 2022 winner was Percival Everett with his novel The Trees.
