The PG Wodehouse Prize awards prizes for comic fiction, and this year it brings an exciting and interesting shortlist to us.
The contenders are comprised of Terry Prachett’s 39th novel, Snuff, from his phenomenally successful Discworld series, Sue Townsend’s The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year, John O’Farrell’s The Man Who Forgot His Wife, Julian Gough’s Jude in London and John Lanchester’s Capital.
Lanchester is perhaps not the most likely candidate for the Wodehouse prize in that his novel deals with post-economic crash London. But Peter Florence – director of the Hay festival and Wodehouse prize judge, is happy not just with Capital’s inclusion but with the entire selection, as it “resonates with lots of the verbal wit, delightful characterisation and satirical edge of Wodehouse’s own work.”
The award’s namesake is Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, author of the Jeeves and Wooster series and numerous other humorous works, who enjoyed vast popularity and almost universal critical acclaim in his 70-year writing career for his original, dry and quintessentially English wit.