The 2022 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction has announced an extended shortlist of twelve titles in contention for this year’s award, in recognition of the exceptionally strong list of submissions it has received. The twelve books on this year’s list highlight the funniest novels of the past twelve months, which best evoke the Wodehouse spirit of witty characters and perfectly-timed comic phrases.
The award is the UK’s longest running prize for comic fiction and previous winners have included bestselling novelists Alexander McCall Smith, Helen Fielding, Howard Jacobson and Marina Lewycka.
The twelve funniest books chosen by this year’s judges, and comprising the 2022 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse for Comic Fiction shortlist, are:
Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes
Published by Michael Joseph (Penguin Random House)
Following on from celebrating 25 years of her widely loved and acclaimed novel Rachel’s Holiday, Marian reunites readers with Rachel and the whole Walsh family, in this acute and heart-warming sequel, which sheds light on challenging contemporary issues with her signature humour, honesty and warmth.
“Again, Rachel has all of Keyes's trademark wit, humour and whip-smart dialogue, but it's also a novel teeming with compassion and redemption.” OBSERVER
Are We Having Fun Yet? by Lucy Mangan
Published by Souvenir Press (Profile Books)
Are We Having Fun Yet? is a year with one woman, Liz, as she faces all the storms of modern life (babysitters, death, threadworms) on her epic quest for that holy grail: a moment to herself. And, as if her family's demands weren't enough, she must also contend with the madness of parents, friends, bosses, and at least one hovering nemesis.
“I was crying with laughter reading so much of it ... full of pure simmering rage.” Emma Barnett, BBC WOMAN’S HOUR
Harrow by Joy Williams
Published by Tuskar Rock (Profile Books)
A fresh, powerful story of surviving ecological disaster and solidarity between the generations by a giant of American literature.
“Cracked, morbidly hilarious ... a splintered vision of environmental collapse that seems somehow both gleefully nihilistic and yearningly spiritual” WALL STREET JOURNAL, Top Ten Books of 2021
Impossible by Sarah Lotz
Published by HarperCollins
When fate brings Nick and Bee together over a misdirected email, the connection is instant. They feel like they’ve known each other all their lives. Lots of great love stories start this way. But nothing ends like Impossible. Moving, memorable and completely original, Impossible is a love story like no other.
“Utterly delightful” NEW YORK TIMES
Last Resort by Andrew Lipstein
Published by Weindenfeld & Nicolson (Orion Publishing)
When a bestseller-to-be cuts too close to reality, its author must make a Faustian bargain - both on the page and in real life. A blazing debut novel blurring the lines of fact and fiction: a thrilling story of fame, fortune, and impossible choices.
“This is a moral drama about ambition and authorship that's as funny and fast-paced as it is sharp and cutting.” MONOCLE
One Day I Shall Astonish The World by Nina Stibbe
Published by Viking (Penguin Random House)
One Day I Shall Astonish The World is the story of the wonderful and sometimes surprising path of friendship: from its conspiratorial beginnings, along its irritating wrong turns, to its final gratifying destination.
“One of the great comic writers of our time” IRISH TIMES
Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart
Published by Allen & Unwin (Atlantic Books)
Eight friends, one country house, four romances, and six months in isolation, Our Country Friends is a novel about love, friendship, family, and betrayal, a book that reads like a great Russian novel, or Chekhov on the Hudson, by a novelist The New York Times calls 'one of his generation's most original writers'.
“.. a playful, allusive comedy of pandemic manners that triumphantly blends hilarity with soulfulness.” MAIL ON SUNDAY
The Echo Chamber by John Boyne
Published by Doubleday (Penguin Random House)
Powered by John Boyne's characteristic humour and razor-sharp observation, The Echo Chamber is a satiric helter skelter, a dizzying downward spiral of action and consequence, poised somewhere between farce, absurdity and oblivion. To err is maybe to be human but to really foul things up you only need a phone.
“An uproariously funny novel... John Boyne skilfully skewers the cruelties of social media and the absurdities of wokeness ... a brave and timely foray into the contemporary culture wars.” FINANCIAL TIMES
The Lock In by Phoebe Luckhurst
Published by Michael Joseph (Penguin Random House)
The Lock In is a hilarious story of housemates and hangovers and friendship and dating as four twenty-somethings discover what the worst morning-after-the-night-before really looks like . . .
“On one hand a feel-good, laugh out loud funny escapist read, and on another a blistering critique of twentysomethings' experience of renting in the capital.” EVENING STANDARD
The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman
Published by Viking (Penguin Random House)
The second novel in the record-breaking number one bestselling ‘Thursday Murder Club’ series, featuring the old (but far from past-it) team as they pursue a brand-new mystery.
“Superbly entertaining” GUARDIAN
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing
Get Out meets The Devil Wears Prada in this electric debut about the tension that unfurls when two young Black women meet against the starkly white backdrop of book publishing.
'One of the books of the year . . . Will blow your mind' STYLIST
The Trees by Percival Everett
Published by Influx Press
The Trees is a page-turner that opens with a series of brutal murders in the rural town of Money, Mississippi. When a pair of detectives from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrive, they meet expected resistance from the local sheriff, his deputy, the coroner, and a string of racist White townsfolk.
‘Satire in the great tradition of Swift by way of South Park.’ DAILY TELEGRAPH
The judges for this year’s prize are: Peter Florence (Event producer, reader and co-founder of the European Festivals Forest), David Campbell (publisher, Everyman’s Library), Sindhu Vee (comedian), James Naughtie (broadcaster and author), and Justin Albert (Vice President of Hay Festival and Director of National Trust Wales).
Chair of the judges, Peter Florence, commented: “What a feast of wonderfully entertaining writing and a delightful spectrum of comedy, wit, satire and knockabout farce. There are great books here, and authors who mine the darker seams of life with humour and humanity.”
Victoria Carfantan, Director of Champagne Bollinger, Group Bollinger UK & Global Partnerships, added: “2022 looks to be a bumper harvest in both the world of Champagne and comic fiction. With twelve strong contenders in the shortlist, we have every reason to transport ourselves with some light-hearted reading to make us all smile once again.”
The winner of this year’s Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction will be announced at a reception on Tuesday 22nd November at the Bollinger Burlington Bar in London. The winner will be awarded with a jeroboam of Bollinger Special Cuvée, a case of Bollinger La Grande Année, the complete set of the Everyman’s Library P.G. Wodehouse collection and a pig named after their winning book.
The shortlist was chosen from 63 submissions, published between 1 June 2021 and 31 May 2022.
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Previous winners were:
Guy Kennaway for The Accidental Collector (2021)
Matthew Dooley for Flake (2020)
Nina Stibbe for Reasons to be Cheerful (2019)
Prize withheld (2018)
Helen Fielding for Bridget Jones’s Baby: The Diaries (2017)
Hannah Rothschild for The Improbability of Love & Paul Murray for The Mark and the Void (2016)
Alexander McCall Smith for Fatty O’Leary’s Dinner Party (2015)
Edward St Aubyn for Lost For Words (2014)
Howard Jacobson for Zoo Time (2013)
Terry Pratchett for Snuff (2012)
Gary Shteyngart for Super Sad True Love Story (2011)
Ian McEwan for Solar (2010)
Geoff Dyer for Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi (2009)
Will Self for The Butt (2008)
Paul Torday for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2007)
Christopher Brookmyre for All Fun and Games until Somebody Loses an Eye (2006)
Marina Lewycka for A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (2005)
Jasper Fforde for The Well of Lost Plots (2004)
DBC Pierre for Vernon God Little (2003)
Michael Frayn for Spies (2002)
Jonathan Coe for The Rotter’s Club (2001)
Howard Jacobson for The Mighty Waltzer (2000)
Picture of Richard Osman - Credit Conor O'leary
