Books vie for comic prize

Books by Ben Elton, Alexei Sayle and Dave Gorman are vying for a comic writing prize.

They are among 25 titles in the 'longlist' for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize.

Readers will whittle this down to a shortlist, and the winner will be chose by judges James Naughtie and Christopher Hitchens,

Last year's winner was Jonathan Coe for The Rotter's Club. He received a case of champagne and even had a pig named after his book.

The full list is:

How to Be Good by Nick Hornby
Happiness by Will Ferguson
Dead Famous by Ben Elton
The Best A Man Can Get by John O'Farrell
SOS by Joseph Connolly
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Hatchett and Lycett by Nigel Williams
Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
Who's Sorry Now? by Howard Jacobson
The Dog Catcher by Alexei Sayle
Dogwalker by Arthur Bradford
Spencer's List by Lissa Evans
Are You Dave Gorman? by Dave Gorman
Me Me Me by David Huggins
Country Doctor - Tales of a Rural GP by Dr Michael Sparrow
The Laying on of Hands by Alan Bennett
Travels with my Radio by Fi Glover
Gringo Soup by J B Aspinall
Forest of Memories - Tales from the Heart of Africa by Donald McIntosh
Selling Ben Cheever by Ben Cheever
Aberystwyth Mon Amour by Malcolm Pryce
Faintheart by Charles Jennings
Homage to a Firing Squad by Tariq Goddard
The Bank Robber Diaries by Danny King
We're So Famous by Jaime Clarke

Have your vote on the Guardian Books website. Everyone who votes is entered into a draw to win all the titles on the list, a 16-volume set of PG Wodehouse and a bottle of champagne.

Published: 16 May 2002