Ferdia Lennon wins Wodehouse Prize 2024 with Glorious Exploits book
- Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon has won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction 2024
- As is tradition, a pig has been named after his book. The novel is set in 412 BC, and focuses on Athenians staging Medea in a quarry
- The judges say: "It's a caper, a buddy story, and it had us all laughing and cheering Ferdia Lennon's comic spirit"
Ferdia Lennon has won the 2024 Wodehouse Prize celebrating funny novels.
The award organisers say: "At a time when cracking open a bottle of the best bubbly and curling up with a laugh-out-loud novel seems more appealing than ever, the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction 2024 has been awarded to Ferdia Lennon for his exquisitely unique and funny debut novel Glorious Exploits, published by Fig Tree, an imprint of Penguin Random House UK."
The announcement was made this evening at a ceremony held in central London. Lennon receives a jeroboam of Bollinger Special Cuvée, a case of Bollinger La Grande Année, the complete set of the Everyman's Library P.G. Wodehouse collection, and - as is tradition - a pig has been named after his winning book.
Ferdia Lennon was born and raised in Dublin to an Irish mother and Libyan father. He holds a BA in History and Classics from University College Dublin and an MA in Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia. After spending many years in Paris, he now lives in Norwich with his wife and son. Glorious Exploits is his debut novel.
Glorious Exploits is set in 412 BC, when Athens' invasion of Sicily has failed catastrophically. Thousands of Athenian soldiers are held captive in the quarries of Syracuse, starving, dejected and hanging on by the slimmest of threads. Lampo and Gelon are local potters, young men with no work and barely two obols to rub together. With not much to fill their time, they take to visiting the nearby quarry, where they discover prisoners who will, in desperation, recite lines from the plays of Euripides in return for scraps of bread and a scattering of olives. And so an idea is born: the men will put on Medea in the quarry. Because after all, you can hate the Athenians for invading your territory, but still love their poetry.
Lennon says: "I was stunned and utterly delighted to get the news. This is a prize I have followed for years, and so many books I love have won or been shortlisted for it. I'm truly honoured that the judges gave me the nod amongst such a brilliant shortlist. For Samuel Beckett, the act of writing was the placing of stains on silence and nothingness. For me, it has always been more of a means to secure pig naming rights, so I am very pleased indeed."
The winner was chosen from a shortlist of seven titles by a judging panel comprising of David Campbell (publisher, Everyman's Library), Peter Florence (Director of The Conversation at St Martin in the Fields), Pippa Evans (comedian), Sindhu Vee (comedian), James Naughtie (broadcaster and author), and Justin Albert (Vice Chair, University of Wales; Chair, Rewilding Britain; and Advisor to the Hay Festivals).
Peter Florence, who chaired the panel, comments: "What a great year this has been. We were delighted with the shortlist and we're thrilled with the winner. Glorious Exploits is a delightful mash of contemporary Irish comedy and classical Athenian tragedy. It's a caper, a buddy story, and it had us all laughing and cheering Ferdia Lennon's comic spirit."
The award is the UK's longest running prize for comic fiction. It will return in 2025 for its 25th anniversary.
Glorious Exploits is available in Hardback, paperback, eBook and Kindle editions. Amazon listing