''Literary Review'' is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

. Its offices are on Lexington Street in

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...

. The magazine was edited for fourteen years by veteran journalist

Auberon Waugh Auberon Alexander Waugh (17 November 1939 – 16 January 2001) was an English journalist and novelist, and eldest son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh. He was widely known by his nickname "Bron". After a traditional classical education at Downsid ...

. The current editor is Nancy Sladek. The magazine reviews a wide range of published books, including fiction, history, politics, biography and travel, and additionally prints new fiction. It is also known for the annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award that it has run since 1993.

Bad Sex in Fiction Award

Each year since 1993, ''Literary Review'' has presented the annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award to the

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

it deems to have produced the worst description of a sex scene in a novel. The award is symbolically presented in the form of what has been described as a "semi-abstract trophy representing sex in the 1950s", depicting a naked woman draped over an open book. The award was established by Rhoda Koenig, a literary critic, and Auberon Waugh, then the magazine's editor. The aim of the award is "to draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it". The enduring relevance of this rationale has been questioned, based on concerns about censorious

public shaming Public humiliation or public shaming is a form of punishment whose main feature is dishonoring or disgracing a person, usually an offender or a prisoner, especially in a public place. It was regularly used as a form of judicially sanctioned puni ...

(including

online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" o ...

) of authors of serious

literary fiction Literary fiction, mainstream fiction, non-genre fiction or serious fiction is a label that, in the book trade, refers to market novels that do not fit neatly into an established genre (see genre fiction); or, otherwise, refers to novels that are ch ...

Winners

* 1993: Melvyn Bragg, ''A Time to Dance'' * 1994: Philip Hook, ''The Stonebreakers'' * 1995:

Philip Kerr Philip Ballantyne Kerr (22 February 1956 – 23 March 2018) was a British author, best known for his Bernie Gunther series of historical detective thrillers. Early life Kerr was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, where his father was an enginee ...

, '' Gridiron'' * 1996: David Huggins, ''The Big Kiss: An Arcade Mystery'' * 1997:

Nicholas Royle Nicholas Royle (born 20 March 1963 in Manchester) is an English novelist, editor, publisher, literary reviewer and creative writing lecturer. Literary career Author Royle has written seven novels: ''Counterparts'', ''Saxophone Dreams'', ''The Mat ...

, ''The Matter of the Heart'' * 1998:

Sebastian Faulks Sebastian Charles Faulks (born 20 April 1953) is a British novelist, journalist and broadcaster. He is best known for his historical novels set in France – ''The Girl at the Lion d'Or'', '' Birdsong'' and '' Charlotte Gray''. He has also pub ...

, '' Charlotte Gray'' * 1999: A. A. Gill, ''Starcrossed'' * 2000: Sean Thomas, ''Kissing England'' * 2001: Christopher Hart, ''Rescue Me'' * 2002: Wendy Perriam, ''Tread Softly'' * 2003:

Aniruddha Bahal Aniruddha Bahal is the founder and editor-in-chief of Cobrapost.com – an Indian news website. Prior to founding Cobrapost, he co-founded ''Tehelka''. Bahal was born in Allahabad and is a university graduate. He moved to Delhi in 1991 where he be ...

, ''

Bunker 13 ''Bunker 13: A Novel'' is a 2003 novel about an Indian journalist working on a weekly news magazine, who is investigating reports of corruption in some rogue outfits in the Indian army in the Kashmir sector. Drugs, sex and espionage are the cen ...

'' * 2004:

Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...

, ''

I Am Charlotte Simmons ''I Am Charlotte Simmons'' is a 2004 novel by Tom Wolfe, concerning sexual and status relationships at the fictional Dupont University. Wolfe researched the novel by talking to students at North Carolina, Florida, Penn, Duke, Stanford, and Mic ...

'' * 2005:

Giles Coren Giles Robin Patrick Coren (born 29 July 1969) is a British columnist, food writer, and television and radio presenter. He has been a restaurant critic for ''The Times'' newspaper since 2002, and was named Food and Drink Writer of the Year at the ...

, '' Winkler'' * 2006:

Iain Hollingshead Iain Hollingshead (born 1980) is a British freelance journalist and novelist. Iain writes feature articles for a range of publications, ''The Daily Telegraph'' in particular. Until recently, he also wrote a regular column called Loose Ends in Sat ...

, ''Twenty Something'' * 2007: Norman Mailer, ''

The Castle in the Forest ''The Castle in the Forest'' is the last novel by writer Norman Mailer, published in the year of his death, 2007. It is the story of Adolf Hitler's childhood as seen through the eyes of Dieter, a demon sent to put him on his destructive path. T ...

'' * 2008:

Rachel Johnson Rachel Sabiha Johnson (born 3 September 1965) is a British journalist, television presenter, and author who has appeared frequently on political discussion panels, including '' The Pledge'' on Sky News and BBC One's debate programme, '' Questi ...

, ''Shire Hell''; John Updike, Lifetime Achievement Award * 2009:

Jonathan Littell Jonathan Littell (born October 10, 1967) is a writer living in Barcelona. He grew up in France and the United States and is a citizen of both countries. After acquiring his bachelor's degree he worked for a humanitarian organisation for nine year ...

, '' The Kindly Ones'' * 2010: Rowan Somerville, ''The Shape of Her'' * 2011: David Guterson, ''Ed King'' * 2012: Nancy Huston, ''Infrared'' * 2013: Manil Suri, ''The City of Devi'' * 2014:

Ben Okri Ben Okri (born 15 March 1959) is a Nigerian-British poet and novelist.Ben Okri"
British Council, ...

, ''The Age of Magic'' * 2015: Morrissey, '' List of the Lost'' * 2016: Erri De Luca, ''The Day Before Happiness'' * 2017: Christopher Bollen, '' The Destroyers'' * 2018:

James Frey James Frey (born September 12, 1969) is an American writer and businessman. His first two books, ''A Million Little Pieces'' (2003) and '' My Friend Leonard'' (2005), were bestsellers marketed as memoirs. Large parts of the stories were later f ...

, ''Katerina'' * 2019: Didier Decoin, ''The Office of Gardens and Ponds'' and

John Harvey John Harvey may refer to: People Academics * John Harvey (astrologer) (1564–1592), English astrologer and physician * John Harvey (architectural historian) (1911–1997), British architectural historian, who wrote on English Gothic architecture ...

, ''Pax'' * 2020: Not awarded, citing that people have been "subjected to too many bad things this year" already.

Contributors

Contributors to the magazine have included

Diana Athill Diana Athill (21 December 1917 – 23 January 2019) was a British literary editor, novelist and memoirist who worked with some of the greatest writers of the 20th century at the London-based publishing company Andre Deutsch Ltd. Early life ...

Kingsley Amis Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social a ...

, Martin Amis, Beryl Bainbridge,

John Banville William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Proust, via Nabokov", Banville himself maintains that W. B. Yeats and Henry ...

Julian Barnes Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with '' The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with '' Flaubert's Parrot'', ''England, England'', and '' A ...

Maile Chapman Maile Chapman is an American novelist and short story writer. Chapman was born in Tacoma, Washington, and has a BA from The Evergreen State College and an MFA in Fiction from Syracuse University. She is currently a PhD candidate and Schaeffer Fe ...

Boris Dralyuk Boris Dralyuk (born in 1982) is a Ukrainian-American writer, editor and translator. He obtained his high school degree from Fairfax High School and his PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from UCLA. He has taught Russian literature at his a ...

Hilary Mantel Dame Hilary Mary Mantel ( ; born Thompson; 6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022) was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, '' Every Day Is Mother's Day'', was relea ...

, John Mortimer,

Malcolm Bradbury Sir Malcolm Stanley Bradbury, (7 September 1932 – 27 November 2000) was an English author and academic. Life Bradbury was born in Sheffield, the son of a railwayman. His family moved to London in 1935, but returned to Sheffield in 1941 with ...

, A. S. Byatt, Paul Johnson,

David Starkey David Robert Starkey (born 3 January 1945) is an English historian and radio and television presenter, with views that he describes as conservative. The only child of Quaker parents, he attended Kendal Grammar School before studying at Cambr ...

, John Gray, Robert Harris, Nick Hornby,

Richard Ingrams Richard Reid Ingrams (born 19 August 1937 in Chelsea, London) is an English journalist, a co-founder and second editor of the British satirical magazine ''Private Eye'', and founding editor of '' The Oldie'' magazine. He left the latter job at ...

, Joseph O'Neill,

Lynn Barber Lynn Barber (born 22 May 1944) is a British journalist who has worked for many publications, including ''The Sunday Times''. Early life Barber attended Lady Eleanor Holles School in south-west London. While she was studying for her A-Levels she ...

Derek Mahon Derek Mahon (23 November 1941 – 1 October 2020) was an Irish poet. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland but lived in a number of cities around the world. At his death it was noted that his, "influence in the Irish poetry community, lit ...

Oleg Gordievsky Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky, CMG (; born 10 October 1938) is a former colonel of the KGB who became KGB resident-designate (''rezident'') and bureau chief in London, and was a double agent, providing information to the British Secret Intelli ...

, John Sutherland and D. J. Taylor. Recently published authors of new fiction include

William Trevor William Trevor Cox (24 May 1928 – 20 November 2016), known by his pen name William Trevor, was an Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world, he is widely regarded as one of th ...

, Claire Keegan and Nicola Barker.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://literaryreview.co.uk/
Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction Award

Compendium of winners
1979 establishments in the United Kingdom Book review magazines Literary magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1979 Magazines published in London