My December sermon from the pulpit, as a few people may remember, ended with a paean of praise and thanks to Stephen Fry, who kindly agreed to present the prizes at the Literary Review’s annual award for Bad Sex in Fiction – won this year by Nicholas Royle, whose original and stimulating novel The Matter of the Heart (Abacus £9.99) included the glorious sentence: ‘Yasmin grinned and writhed on the bed, arching her back, making a noise somewhere between a beached seal and a police siren.’

Jan 1998

A Noble Stand from a Very Clever Novelist

The Fruits of Old Age

Lord Gnaim Writes: Not A Manifesto

Another Approach to Criticism

In Eliot’s Footsteps

Too Early for Us to Be Thankful

Towards a Discreet Form of Censorship

Nobody Loves Them, Nobody Cares

No Literary Mafia in This House

A Sad Plop

All We Need

A Little More Whitewash

Sign Up to our newsletter

@Lit_Review

Last Tweets