My post about the Orange Prize panel having decided this year's award with certain inappropriate criteria in mind hasn't exactly set off a storm of protest. I'm therefore glad to see Susan Hill making the point as well on her Spectator blog. Susan cites one of the rules of the prize: 'The Orange Prize for Fiction is awarded to the woman who, in the opinion of the judges, has written the best, eligible full-length novel in English.' As she goes on to say apropos Daisy Goodwin's remarks (see my earlier post):
The rules do not stipulate that no author may win the prize if they have won another prize, or if their book has sold particularly well, or if the judges think it's time to give someone else... a turn.
You don't even need goal-line technology in this case.
