Stupid White Men wins book of the year award (British literary values plummet)

Telegraph [UK] ^ | 2/25/03 | n.a.

[Mark Felton]

Michael Moore's Stupid White Men, an anti-war satire which attacks US President George Bush, was named Book of the Year.

Michael Moore: boosted by public telephone vote

It took top prize at the British Book Awards last night, beating Yann Martel's Booker Prize winner Life Of Pi and Manchester United star Roy Keane's autobiography.

Keane was also nominated in the biography category along with Ulrika Jonsson, who wrote about her affair with England coach Sven Goran Eriksson in her book, Honest.

But neither Jonsson's sensational revelations nor Keane's book - in which he admitted deliberately trying to injure Manchester City's Alf Inge Haaland with a nightmare tackle - emerged as winners.

They may have made all the headlines in the past few months, but the biography of the year award went instead to the late Roy Jenkins for his study of Sir Winston Churchill.

The winners were announced at an awards ceremony held at London's Grosvenor House Hotel. Moore's triumph was boosted by a strong telephone vote from the public, which was added to the votes of judges from the publishing industry for the first time in the awards' history.

"It looks like a very strong anti-war vote both from insiders in the book business and the public," awards organiser Merric Davidson said. "The Keane book got a lot of public votes from the Manchester area, but Moore's book proved nationally very popular."

Stupid White Men almost never saw the light of day after Moore's US publishers tried to shelve it on the grounds that it expressed unpatriotic sentiments post-September 11.

They changed their minds after a protest campaign by US librarians and it went on to become a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic, shifting over 300,000 copies in the UK so far.

Elsewhere at the awards, Michael Palin beat Kylie Minogue to the title of Illustrated Book of the Year for Sahara. Sarah Waters, writer of lesbian romp Tipping The Velvet, was named Author of the Year.

Style gurus Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine won Film and TV Book of the Year for What Not To Wear, triumphing over Jamie Oliver's book Jamie's Kitchen.

[Desdemona]

ping

unreal

[GoAhead-Make My Day]

Oh yay, can't wait to run out and buy this book - not.

[arly]

woww and I thought the US was getting messed up!.. the brits never did get over us throwing there tea and there soldiers out of the US did they?..

[UncleSamUSA]

Moore's anti-US rantings win out over an autobiography by a soccer star.

Proof positive that William Shakespeare's legacy in "the Sceptered Isle" is dead for good.

[maquiladora]

Simply reflects the massive anti-US feeling in the UK. Book Of The Year? Voted by the public and 'critics' alike. 300,000 copies sold in the UK already?

Yes, this is the kinda world we live in today.

[Welsh Rabbit]

The dumb man's Noam Chomsky.

[cubreporter]

Stupid White Man = michil moor

[Numbers Guy]

The fact that Kylie Minogue nearly won a book award in this competition really makes it clear just how sad this "competition" really is.

[Our man in washington]

Is that the title of the book or the primary audience?

[yankeedame]

(Yawn) So it was crowned "Book of the Year" via a ramdon phone "vote". Oh, wow, like I am so impressed. Now, how about looking at the facts and figures? IMHO, the title "Book of the Year" should be given to the book that actually sold the most copies. What were/are the numbers re: MM book? How many were actually bought? You know, folk who voted with thier wallet, not their telephone.

[uncbuck]

"Moore's triumph was boosted by a strong telephone vote from the public, which was added to the votes of judges from the publishing industry for the first time in the awards' history. "

Only liberals would be stupid enough to call into an awards show to vote for something. Why do we conservatives pay attention to stuff like this, when we don't have the time nor energy to make those calls?

[headsonpikes]

One must remember, 'Stupid White Men' is merely the abbreviated title of Tubbo Moore's yet-to-be-published autobiography, 'Stupid, Fat, and Ugly White Man-- The Michael Moore Story'.

[The_Macallan]

[dead]

Michael Moore's screed, not one but two books about soccer, books by Kylie Minogue and Monty Python's Michael Palin...

Why not just give the award to a coloring book?

[KC_Conspirator]

They changed their minds after a protest campaign by US librarians and it went on to become a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic, shifting over 300,000 copies in the UK so far.

Of course the fact that lots of anti-American professors made it required reading did'nt hurt either. Lots of young minfs to corrupt with leftist propaganda...

[Ohioan]

No sillier than some of the drivel being peddled as serious English literature in College English classes, these days, on this side of the Atlantic. It will only get worse until the mainstream rediscover their roots, values and pride in heritage, and take back their countries from the dysrons who are destroying that heritage.

In the traditional Society, on either side of the Atlantic, such a book as that which you describe would be a bad joke--an object only for ridicule among the literate.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site