Nina Stibbe's Reasons to Be Cheerful won this year's Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, given to a book that best captures the comic spirit of the legendary British author, the Bookseller reported. Last year, for the first time in its history, the prize did not name a winner after the judges said they had "not found a book they felt worthy."
Stibbe's victory "comes after the prize faced criticism from Marian Keyes that it was very rarely won by a woman," the Bookseller wrote, adding that a new contest, the Comedy Women in Print Prize, "was launched in the wake of the row."
Since the prize was not given last year, Stibbe wins two rare breed pigs named after her book, a methuselah of Bollinger Special Cuvée, along with a case, plus a complete set of the Everyman's Library collection of Wodehouse's books.
David Campbell, judge and publisher of Everyman's Library, said: "With Reasons to Be Cheerful Nina Stibbe has written a comic tour de force. We withheld the prize in 2018 and so were eager to find a book this year that would make each of the judges laugh out loud. Nina Stibbe has achieved that with aplomb. Reasons to Be Cheerful is a moving and funny pitch-perfect romp that takes us back to the 1980s, which serves as a fitting tribute to the inimitable P.G. Wodehouse."
Stibbe commented: "I have always wanted a pig--my own Empress of Blandings--and now I shall have two. I'm overjoyed to have been awarded the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize. To win against such talented competition, to be honored with the pigs and to go home with a family-sized bottle of Bolly, and the complete works of Wodehouse is a dream come true for any writer."