UK literary prize for sarcastic reviewers

London: A new literary prize aims to reward book reviews with edge. The Hatchet Job of the Year Award honours “the angriest, funniest, most trenchant” review published in British newspapers in 2011. [caption id=“attachment_178593” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“A new literary prize aims to reward book reviews with edge. The Hatchet Job of the Year Award honours “the angriest, funniest, most trenchant” review published in British newspapers in 2011.”] [/caption] Eight finalists for the prize were announced today. They include classicist Mary Beard’s dismissal of Robert Hughes’ “Rome”, “little short of a disgrace”, and Leo Robson’s verdict on Rachel Bradford’s “Martin Amis: The Biography”. He said it was “full of spectacularly bad writing, about spectacularly good writing”. The prize, set up by the arts review website The Omnivore, will be awarded on 7 February. The winner will receive a year’s supply of potted shrimp from the award’s sponsor, a fishmonger. AP