Wodehouse prize for comic fiction withheld after judges fail to laugh

None of the 62 novels submitted for the 2018 award generated ‘unanimous laughter’ among the jury, so the honour will roll over this year

This year’s new novels are not much of a laugh – at least according to the judges of the UK’s only prize for comic fiction, who have taken the unprecedented decision to withhold the award after failing to be sufficiently amused by the books submitted.

The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction, which has been running since 2000, goes to the novel deemed to best capture the comic spirit of the late PG Wodehouse. In another blow to a year that has already suffered from its fair share of doom and gloom, judges revealed on Wednesday morning that they had not found a book they felt worthy “to join the heady comedic ranks of PG Wodehouse” or of previous winners such as Marina Lewycka or Alexander McCall Smith.

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