LETTERS Philistinism
Sir: I have been delighted to be associated with the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award, most recently as a judge, but I would not wish it to be thought that Graham Lord necessarily expresses opin- ions of anyone other than himself in his letter (10 February). I did not think that in judging the Express Award we were judg- ing any novel for its 'fun to read' quality but for its good literary standard combined with accessibility and readability.
Kazuo Ishiguro's novel The Remains of the Day is a small masterpiece but it did not seem to me, nor to any of last year's judges, to be the right book to win the Sunday Express Award. But it seemed to me exactly right to win the Booker Prize, and indeed, I said as much to Graham Lord after I had read it in proof version. I thought it then, and still think it, a remark- able book, subtle, perfectly shaped, mov- ing, satisfying, beautifully written — and astonishingly readable too — 'credible and distinguished' it most certainly is.
As far as the Booker Prize itself goes, although 1 feel that in recent years it, along with the other major prizes (and including the Sunday Express Award) have actually begun to do harm to novelists and the contemporary novel, because of the hyster- ia they have generated, and the attendant , atmosphere of circus and race track, in its early days and for many years, Booker did a tremendous service in helping to raise the general awareness of serious fiction and increase sales. And, with one or two exceptions only, the winners have been consistently fine and well deserved.
I would certainly always agree with Mr Lord that novelists themselves ought al- ways to be represented on the judging panels of novel prizes. As a novelist, I find that it is the comments and criticisms, favourable or adverse, of my fellow practi- tioners that 1 care about and respect the most. But it is arrant nonsense to suggest that critics and academics are only so 'because they are incapable of writing decent novels themselves.' Of course there are fools, incompetents and the envious and embittered in this, as in every other profession. But I am married to an academic and know many others. They are none of them failed or even aspiring novelists. Not everyone, in spite of appa- rent evidence to the contrary, actually wants to write a novel!
It is of course, flattering to be seen as 'Perceptive and unpretentious' and I hope indeed that I am not a member of any Clique, either of 'literary pseuds and Poseurs' or any other kind. But I would like to encourage as many interested peo- ple to read the work of both Salman Rushdie, Fay Weldon and numerous others, and judge for themselves whether they are indeed the great writers 1, in common with many, believe them to be.
Graham Lord does the Sunday Express Award, contemporary fiction, and himself no service by stepping over the line divid- ing common sense and the genuine appre- ciation of good quality, readable and ac- cessible fiction, from highbrow-bashing and philistinism.
Susan Hill
Midsummer Cottage, Church Lane, Beckley, Oxford
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