Literary Review
Encyclopedia
Literary Review is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at Edinburgh University. Its offices are currently on Lexington Street in Soho
, London
, and it has a circulation of 44,750. Britain's principal literary monthly, the magazine was edited for fourteen years by veteran journalist Auberon Waugh
. Nancy Sladek, who has been at the magazine for ten years, is the current editor.
The magazine reviews a wide range of published books, including fiction, history, politics, biography and travel. Contributors to the magazine have included Diana Athill
, Kingsley Amis
, Martin Amis
, Beryl Bainbridge
, Julian Barnes
, Hilary Mantel
, John Mortimer
, Malcolm Bradbury
, AS Byatt, Paul Johnson
, David Starkey
, John Gray
, Robert Harris
, Nick Hornby
, Richard Ingrams
, Joseph O'Neill
, Lynn Barber
, Derek Mahon, Oleg Gordievsky
, John Sutherland
and DJ Taylor. Literary Review also prints new fiction. Recently published authors include William Trevor
, Claire Keegan
and Nicola Barker
.
who produces the worst description of a sex scene in a novel
. The award itself is in the form of a "semi-abstract trophy representing sex in the 1950s", which depicts a naked woman draped over an open book. The award was originally established by Rhoda Koenig, a literary critic, and Auberon Waugh
, then the magazine's editor.
The given rationale is "to draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it".
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and it has a circulation of 44,750. Britain's principal literary monthly, the magazine was edited for fourteen years by veteran journalist Auberon Waugh
Auberon Waugh
Auberon Alexander Waugh was a British author and journalist, son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh. He was known to his family and friends as Bron Waugh.-Life and career:...
. Nancy Sladek, who has been at the magazine for ten years, is the current editor.
The magazine reviews a wide range of published books, including fiction, history, politics, biography and travel. Contributors to the magazine have included Diana Athill
Diana Athill
Diana Athill OBE is a British literary editor, novelist and memoirist who worked with some of the most important writers of the 20th century.-Life and writings:...
, Kingsley Amis
Kingsley Amis
Sir Kingsley William Amis, CBE was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, various short stories, radio and television scripts, along with works of social and literary criticism...
, Martin Amis
Martin Amis
Martin Louis Amis is a British novelist, the author of many novels including Money and London Fields . He is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, but will step down at the end of the 2010/11 academic year...
, Beryl Bainbridge
Beryl Bainbridge
Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge, DBE was an English author from Liverpool. She was primarily known for her psychological novels, often set amongst the English working classes. Bainbridge won the Whitbread Awards prize for best novel in 1977 and 1996; she was nominated five times for the Booker...
, Julian Barnes
Julian Barnes
Julian Patrick Barnes is a contemporary English writer, and winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize, for his book The Sense of an Ending...
, Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mary Mantel CBE , née Thompson, is an English novelist, short story writer and critic. Her work, ranging in subject from personal memoir to historical fiction, has been short-listed for major literary awards...
, John Mortimer
John Mortimer
Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE, QC was a British barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...
, Malcolm Bradbury
Malcolm Bradbury
Sir Malcolm Stanley Bradbury CBE was an English author and academic.-Life:Bradbury was the son of a railwayman. His family moved to London in 1935, but returned to Sheffield in 1941 with his brother and mother...
, AS Byatt, Paul Johnson
Paul Johnson
-Sports:*Paul Johnson , head football coach at Georgia Tech*Paul Johnson [1896-1973], Major League outfielder*Paul Johnson , English cricketer*Paul Johnson , English footballer...
, David Starkey
David Starkey
David Starkey, CBE, FSA is a British constitutional historian, and a radio and television presenter.He was born the only child of Quaker parents, and attended Kendal Grammar School before entering Cambridge through a scholarship. There he specialised in Tudor history, writing a thesis on King...
, John Gray
John Gray
-Born 18th century:*John Gray , member of the North Carolina General Assembly*John Gray , president of the Bank of Montreal...
, Robert Harris
Robert Harris
Robert Harris or Rob Harris may refer to:* Robert Harris , MP for Steyning* Robert Harris , English Puritan* Robert Harris , governor of Anguilla...
, Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby is an English novelist, essayist and screenwriter. He is best known for the novels High Fidelity, About a Boy, and for the football memoir Fever Pitch. His work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists.-Life and career:Hornby was...
, Richard Ingrams
Richard Ingrams
Richard Ingrams is an English journalist, a co-founder and second editor of the British satirical magazine Private Eye, and now editor of The Oldie magazine.-Career:...
, Joseph O'Neill
Joseph O'Neill
Joseph O'Neill may refer to:* Joseph O'Neill , Irish-born novelist and author of Netherland* Joseph O'Neill , Irish novelist* Joseph O'Neill , Irish politician, member of the 14th Seanad...
, Lynn Barber
Lynn Barber
Lynn Barber is a British journalist, who writes for The Sunday Times.-Early life:Barber attended Lady Eleanor Holles School...
, Derek Mahon, Oleg Gordievsky
Oleg Gordievsky
Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky , CMG , is a former Colonel of the KGB and KGB Resident-designate and bureau chief in London, who was a secret agent of the British Secret Intelligence Service from 1974 to 1985.-Early career:Oleg Gordievsky attended the Moscow State Institute of International...
, John Sutherland
John Sutherland
John Andrew Sutherland is an English academic, emeritus professor, newspaper columnist and author.John Sutherland is now Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London. After graduating from the University of Leicester in 1964, he began his academic...
and DJ Taylor. Literary Review also prints new fiction. Recently published authors include William Trevor
William Trevor
William Trevor, KBE is an Irish author and playwright. He is considered one of the elder statesman of the Irish literary world and widely regarded as the greatest contemporary writer of short stories in the English language....
, Claire Keegan
Claire Keegan
Claire Keegan is an Irish short story writer. She was born in County Wicklow in 1968, the youngest of a large Roman Catholic family. She travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana when she was seventeen and studied English and Political Science at Loyola University...
and Nicola Barker
Nicola Barker
Nicola Barker is an English novelist and short story writer.Typically she writes about damaged or eccentric people in mundane situations, and has a fondness for bleak, isolated settings. Wide Open and Behindlings are set respectively on the Isle of Sheppey and Canvey Island...
.
Bad Sex in Fiction Award
Literary Review is well known for its annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Each year since 1993, Literary Review presents the annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award to the authorAuthor
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
who produces the worst description of a sex scene in a novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
. The award itself is in the form of a "semi-abstract trophy representing sex in the 1950s", which depicts a naked woman draped over an open book. The award was originally established by Rhoda Koenig, a literary critic, and Auberon Waugh
Auberon Waugh
Auberon Alexander Waugh was a British author and journalist, son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh. He was known to his family and friends as Bron Waugh.-Life and career:...
, then the magazine's editor.
The given rationale is "to draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it".
Winners
Winners of the Bad Sex in Fiction award include:- 1993: Melvyn BraggMelvyn BraggMelvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg FRSL FRTS FBA, FRS FRSA is an English broadcaster and author best known for his work with the BBC and for presenting the The South Bank Show...
, A Time to Dance - 1994: Philip Hook, The Stonebreakers
- 1995: Philip KerrPhilip KerrPhilip Kerr is a British author of both adult fiction and non-fiction, most notably the Bernie Gunther series of thrillers, and of children's books, particularly the Children of the Lamp series....
, Gridiron - 1996: David Huggins, The Big Kiss: An Arcade Mystery
- 1997: Nicholas RoyleNicholas RoyleNicholas Royle is an English novelist.Born in Manchester, Royle has written five novels - Counterparts, Saxophone Dreams, The Matter of the Heart, The Director’s Cut and Antwerp. He also claims to have written more than 100 short stories, which have appeared in a variety of anthologies and...
, The Matter of the Heart - 1998: Sebastian FaulksSebastian Faulks-Early life:Faulks was born on 20 April 1953 in Donnington, Berkshire to Peter Faulks and Pamela . Edward Faulks, Baron Faulks, is his older brother. He was educated at Elstree School, Reading and went on to Wellington College, Berkshire...
, Charlotte GrayCharlotte Gray (novel)Charlotte Gray is a 1999 book by Sebastian Faulks and completes his loose trilogy of books about France with an account of the adventures of a young Scotswoman who becomes involved with the French resistance during the Second World War. It is set in Vichy France during World War II... - 1999: A. A. GillA. A. GillAdrian Anthony Gill is a British writer who uses the byline A. A. Gill. He is currently employed by The Sunday Times as their restaurant reviewer and television critic and Vanity Fair magazine as a restaurant reviewer...
, Starcrossed - 2000: Sean ThomasSean ThomasSean Thomas may refer to:*Tom Knox , pseudonym for the author Sean Thomas*Seán Thomas, former manager of the Republic of Ireland national football team*Sean Thomas, guitarist for the band Kisschasy...
, Kissing England - 2001: Christopher HartChristopher Hart (novelist)Christopher Hart is an English novelist and journalist. He writes for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Literary Review, and The Bookseller, and is literary editor of the Erotic Review...
, Rescue Me - 2002: Wendy PerriamWendy PerriamWendy Perriam is an English novelist and graduate of the University of Oxford who started writing at the age of five and wrote her first novel at eleven. Perriam then went silent as she struggled through a long period of depression, having been expelled from her Catholic school for heresy and told...
, Tread Softly - 2003: Aniruddha BahalAniruddha BahalAniruddha Bahal is an Indian journalist, author, founder and editor of the online magazine Cobrapost.com. Born in Allahabad, Bahal worked as a journalist and editor for India Today and Outlook. In 1999, he along with Tarun Tejpal co-founded Tehelka, a news website...
, Bunker 13Bunker 13Bunker 13: A Novel is a 2003 novel about an Indian journalist working on a weekly news magazine, who is a double agent for the Indian and Pakistani military intelligence services. Drugs, sex and espionage are the central themes and is the first novel by Aniruddha Bahal... - 2004: Tom WolfeTom WolfeThomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early life and education:...
, I Am Charlotte SimmonsI Am Charlotte SimmonsI Am Charlotte Simmons is a 2004 novel by Tom Wolfe, concerning sexual and status relationships at the fictional Dupont University, closely modeled after Duke University, the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University... - 2005: Giles CorenGiles CorenGiles Coren is a British food critic, television presenter and novelist. He is known for expressing controversial opinions, and for his television appearances with the comedian Sue Perkins.-Personal:...
, Winkler (article) - 2006: Iain HollingsheadIain HollingsheadIain Hollingshead is a British freelance journalist and novelist.Iain writes feature articles for a range of publications, The Daily Telegraph in particular. Until recently, he also wrote a regular column called Loose Ends in Saturday's Guardian...
, Twenty Something (shortlisted passages) - 2007: Norman MailerNorman MailerNorman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
, The Castle in the ForestThe Castle in the ForestThe Castle in the Forest is the last novel by writer Norman Mailer, published in the year of his death, 2007. It is the story of Adolf Hitler's childhood as seen through the eyes of Dieter, a demon sent to put him on his destructive path. The novel explores the idea that Hitler had no Jewish... - 2008: Rachel JohnsonRachel JohnsonRachel Johnson is an English editor, journalist and author based in London.Johnson is the daughter of former Conservative MEP Stanley Johnson and artist Charlotte Johnson Wahl , the daughter of Sir James Fawcett, a prominent barrister and president of the European Commission of Human Rights...
, Shire Hell; John UpdikeJohn UpdikeJohn Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....
, Lifetime Achievement Award - 2009: Jonathan LittellJonathan LittellJonathan Littell is a bilingual writer living in Barcelona. He grew up in France and United States and is a dual citizen of both countries. After acquiring his bachelor degree he worked for a humanitarian organisation for nine years, leaving his job in 2001 in order to concentrate on writing...
, The Kindly Ones - 2010: Rowan Somerville, The Shape of Her (article)