TLS Letter

Weekly book reviews and literary analysis from the Times Literary Supplement

Charles Butler has a letter published on the Letters page of this week's Times Literary Supplement, in which he asks what 'J.C.', author of the TLS N.B. column, has against Mark Haddon. Butler cites a column from February in which J.C. expressed exaperation at the 'phenomenon of adults finding solace in stories intended for kids' on seeing so many adults reading The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-time. Butler's letter continues:
"Now (NB, June 11 2004) J.C. complains because Haddon has won the ?4,000 McKitterick Prize, despite having earned (it is implied) quite enough from his book already. It?s a strange criticism: I don?t remember any complaint from J.C. when, for example, the well-heeled Ian McEwan won the W.H. Smith award (worth rather more than the McKitterick) with his bestseller Atonement. Or is this a rule that applies only to those J.C. thinks of as children?s writers?"

Incidentally, the same N.B. column (June 11th) reported the outcome of the Sagittarius Prize, awarded to a novel 'by a debutant over sixty'. Also worth ?4000, and awarded this year to The Two Pound Tram by William Newton, it is sponsored by Terry Pratchett, who is also very generously sponsoring this year's Branford Boase Award, to be announced this coming week. Hats off to the normally behatted Mr Pratchett!