Marian: My books are funny but men just won’t admit it!
MARIAN Keyes has revealed she still ‘holds a grudge’ about failing to be nominated for a prestigious award for comic fiction – and said sexist literary judges who ‘automatically give male voices more weight’ were to blame.
She has sold more than 35million books worldwide, with her novels lauded for their humorous takes on dark themes.
But Ms Keyes, 54, said: ‘It’s funny, the one thing I have a grudge about is the PG Wodehouse prize for comic novels and comic literature. I’ve never been shortlisted and I just think my books are funny, they are comic. What else do I have to do to qualify? But anyway, that’s what you get.’
The Everyman Wodehouse Prize was named in honour of the great comedy novelist PG Wodehouse.
Since it was established in 2000, only three women have won the award, compared with 16 men.
Asked why this was, Ms Keyes said: ‘Because they are men. Because male voices are automatically given extra weight. I mean anything that’s ever said or done by a woman just matters less.’
The Limerick-born writer said that while women will happily read books by both genders, men don’t read books by women as they fear it will make them ‘appear weak or fluffy or girly or whatever’.
At an arts festival in Hay, Wales, Ms Keyes said: ‘The sooner the patriarchy is dismantled, the better it will be for all of us.’
The novelist, who has written 13 best-selling books including The Break, said she struggles to get taken seriously in literary circles as she is a funny writer.
She said: ‘Well-meaning types have often taken me aside and said, “If you could just knock off the humour, and while you’re at it if you could get rid of the happy endings?” It’s well-intentioned, I’m sure, but I don’t know how to write any other way and I write that way for myself. I couldn’t bear for there to be no humour.’
Peter Florence, director of Hay Festival, who sits on the panel of five judges for the Wodehouse prize, said Ms Keyes had not been submitted for the award by her publisher for the past two years.
He said the funniest book will win the award regardless of by whom it is written.
The Wodehouse prize, which is awarded annually at Hay, was withheld this year for the first time as none of the entries ‘prompted unanimous, abundant laughter’ among the panel of judges.
Speaking to an audience at Hay, Ms Keyes, a vocal Yes campaigner during last month’s referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment, said her pro-choice stance has alienated some of her readers.
She said: ‘People have contacted me to say they have burnt my books, which just made me laugh. Book burners don’t tend to be on the right side of history.
‘I just thought I had to take a stand and I’m glad that I have. The next big thing is to legalise abortion in Northern Ireland.’
She also revealed she had been asked to appear on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, but turned it down as she is the ‘clumsiest person I have ever met’.
‘They won’t read works by women’