WHITBREAD PRIZE: Bookmakers yesterday installed Ali Smith as hot favourite to win the prestigious Whitbread Book of the Year prize for her novel Accidental, about a chance encounter which alters a family forever.
Smith beat Nick Hornby and Salman Rushdie to win nomination from the novel category to the shortlist. The winners of the four other categories - first novel, children's book, biography and poetry - make up the five-person shortlist.
In the other categories, Tash Aw was nominated from the first novel category for the Harmony Silk Factory, while Hilary Spurling claimed the biography award with the second part of her biography of Matisse, Matisse the Master.
Christopher Logue was nominated from the poetry category with Cold Calls, the fifth and penultimate instalment of his account of The Iliad, and Kate Thompson was chosen for The New Policeman for the children's book award.
Bookmaker William Hill said it was offering odds of 5/4 on Ali Smith scooping the prize, with Hilary Spurling second-favourite at 5/2. - (Reuters)