Orange prize

[bakedpotato]

Zadie Smith thanks India Knight on the 'On Beauty' acknowledgements page

'On Beauty' wins the Orange Prize

India Knight is one of the judges

Ey-op?

I didn't realise that! I've just started reading it.

Surely it would be a bit too obvious?

bloomin' heck

i demand a public inquiry

reading Ali Smith's Accidental at the moment, it's pretty good so far

Is it a scandal?
I think it is!

it's a plotline! let's write a cheesy book about nepotism among trendy female writers...

It's so lonely up here on the high moral ground

or even moral high ground

Hello, BP. Transcription going well, eh?

I get Ali Smith and AL Kennedy mixed up

And WHAT is IK doing as a prize judge, eh, apart from the fact presumably she went to Cambridge with Kate Mosse (given that they were both friends of Ruth Picardie)?

oh drat. I was hoping you wouldn't see this, MI.

I am really awash with righteous indignation now

[frothing]

Yeah, but everything works that way in the literary world--or most things.

And at least there was a panel of judges, which means IK would have had to answer to the others.

get back on your high morel ground....

[Oh, hi MI: hope you're keeping well. ]

[hallo honey, have been wondering how you are!]

Can we pick magic mushrooms on the morel high ground?

I think Sarah Waters should have won. I have fallen in love with her and want to stalk her.

it's a bit different to IK choosing On Beauty for the 'summer reading special' though, innit?

I'm now on the mural high ground enjoying the trompe l'oeil

they could have cast their net wider, imo

oooh lovely. am going to crochet corner tonight with friend who i'm making a programme with this afternoon..rather a surreal experience (we may try out our friday venue...as it's pretty close to here)

who else was shortlisted?

I'm sure I heard a play on R4 about precisely that - nepotism amongst book prize judges - written by, of all people, Joan Bakewell. I think it was her, anyway. Presumably she would know.