Sir Vince Cable, leader of the Liberal Democrats, will not be considered for 2017’s Bad Sex in Fiction Award, despite being nominated “many” times for the prize.
The award has previously been given to Morrissey for his debut novel ‘List of the Lost’, and Erri De Luca for 2016’s The Day Before Happiness.
Cable’s thriller novel Open Arms was considered too good for the prize. It follows the journey of Kate Thomson, a “glamorous housewife-turned-MP” who rises through the Westminster ranks.
In July, he spoke about the erotic scenes in his book, saying: “It is not actually about sex – the sex is very discreet, it is not going to win the bad sex award. It is, I hope, a thriller, it is written as part of the Robert Harris genre. Not as good as that obviously, I am a beginner. It is going to break on the world in a couple of months’ time.”
Cable won’t be considered for the prize, but Wilbur Smith’s War Cry will. In a passage selected for the award, he writes: “He led her back up the beach to where the sand was dry. Then he took off his coat, placed it on the ground and she lay down upon it. ‘Christ!’ he muttered, placing himself on top of her. ‘It’s bloody cold. I might get frostbite on my cock.’”
Another nominee, Simon Wroe, writes in his Here Comes Trouble book: “A clothed body is always human or human-like, a naked body always animal or animal-like. Only at close quarters is the full extent of a body’s wildness revealed, like when a bird gets trapped inside a house. One is moved to not entirely human thinking then. One goes towards its animalness.”
The 2017 winner is announced on November 30 at The Naval and Military Club, aka the appropriately named In & Out.