British writer and Booker winner Howard Jacobson has won this year’s Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction for his novel Zoo Time. He became the first writer to win the prize for second time.
Jacobson won the prize in 2000 for The Mighty Waltzer. The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, which was instituted in 2000, is awarded annually to a novel that best captures the comic spirit of British writer P.G. Wodehouse.
“This is the only literary prize that actively seeks out and rewards comedy. Other prizes often view it as sort of embarrassing writerly malfunction — which is treacherous, in my view, when you consider the comic origins of the novel and the strong comedic traditions of English writing in particular.
So to win the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic writing once was bliss for me. To win it twice is very heaven,” Jacobson said after the announcement was made. Keeping with the Wodehousian spirit, the winner is awarded with a case of Bollinger Champagne and collection of 70 novels by P.G. Wodehouse.
Interestingly, the final part of the prize is that the winner will be honoured with the presentation of a locally-bred Gloucester-shire Old Spot pig, which is then named after the title of the book.
This year, the pig will be named, after the title of Jacobson’s book Zoo Time.
In 2011, Indian journalist Manu Joseph’s debut novel Serious Men was also shortlisted for the prize.