CALLING all women writers: there's a big prize out there waiting to be won. Known as the Orange Prize for Fiction, it will be awarded exclusively to a woman - and at £30,000 it's a lot larger than most literary prizes, including the Booker and the Whitbread.
So why haven't we heard more about it? Mainly because its gestation period has already lasted four years and because two years ago it hit a serious snag - the original sponsor, Mitsubishi Pencil Company UK, backed out after Simon Jenkins derided it in the Times as a sexist award. Orange, the mobile phone company, obviously has more lead in its pencil and, along with a mystery benefactress, has decided to sponsor the award.
As for the sexism charge, Lisa Gernon, the marketing director of Hutchison Telecom, which provides the Orange network, roundly declares: "Women have traditionally not been recognised when it comes to handing out literary awards." That's not, true, actually - women have won 10 out of the 26 Booker prizes and eight out of the last 20 Pulitzers.
Yet if the sexism charge remains valid (and the prize committee is composed entirely of women in publishing), the award is definitely going ahead, and the main concern is to ensure that a prize is given out this year. Any full length novel written in English by a woman of any nationality is eligible, if it was published in the UK between April 1st 1995 and March 31st 1996. If you qualify, bear in mind that titles have to be submitted to the prize committee by January 31st, so get on to your publisher now.
IRISH literature, not to mention Irish public life, might be a good Ideal jollier if we had an Edwina Currie in this country - though politicians mightn't be too keen on the idea. You will recall that Edwina's first novel, A Parliamentary Affair, which sold 240,000 copies in hardback, created a bit of a stir in British political circles both for its steamy sex and for its thinly veiled portraits of her colleagues. In her forthcoming novel, A Woman's Place (to be published by Hodder & Stoughton on February 1st), the veil is removed and she has actual politicians jostling with fictional characters.
Still obviously stung by her downfall during the salmonella crisis, she attacks those she feels to be responsible, with damning remarks about John Major ("How has he stayed at the top so long?") and Michael Heseltine ("nutty as a fruitcake"). She had also included a character called Derek Mellis engaging in sex romps with Commons researchers - until her publisher's lawyers thought the name sounded too close to that of David Mellor, whereupon she changed it to Derek Harrison.
She cheerfully admits that the book is "part revenge" and that there are strong autobiographical elements in it. Are the details of the numerous sex scenes autobiographical, too? "Different things turn on different people," she observes. "Yes, there are certain preferences of mine in the book. If you want to know what these are, you'll have to read it for yourself.
JONATHAN CAPE must be very happy to have Roddy Doyle among its stable of writers. Doyle, whose previous four novels were international bestsellers for Seeker & Warburg, has moved to Cape (for a very considerable transfer fee, I'd imagine) and his new novel, The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, should certainly do the business for his new publishers when its comes out in April.
It takes up the story of Paula Spencer, last seen kicking her abusive husband, Charlo, out of her life in the television series, Family. Charlo is now dead and Paula is trying to put her life together. The publishers are describing it as "lean and sexy, funny and poignant" though they don't say if familiarity with the TV series is of any importance in appreciating the book.