The Women’s Prize for Fiction deserves a better drink than Baileys

Well, as a mere PR exercise, the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, awarded last night, has done really well, what with the American woman from Diageo (owner of Baileys) causing Ian Hislop to fall asleep while standing up during her speech. I haven’t a clue whether Ali Smith’s book, How To Be Both, about sexuality-shifting, is any use, though I am still recovering from reading last year’s winner, Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, which is sort of James Joyce, only with really gross stuff about sexual abuse. It’s nice and short though.

Two questions to ask about the prize. One, why was Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, chair of the judges? She may be the cat’s whiskers when it comes to human rights – though I may say, I part company with her on any number of issues – but I haven’t heard anything from anyone who was present at the event to suggest that she knows anything about literature.