Funny you should write that...

"The British sense of humour is famous around the world but what kind of literature makes them laugh? It seems the ideal amusing read for Brits would be a mind-boggling combination of P.G. Wodehouse's sublime wit, a liberal dose of Joseph Heller's black humour and a slice of Douglas Adams' galactic comedy.

     Our UK website, AbeBooks.co.uk recently asked 555 of its customers to name the funniest book they had ever read. Right Ho, Jeeves, Catch-22 and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy were the top three. Eight of the top 10 authors were British but Americans Heller and John Kennedy Toole also featured prominently."
— Richard Davies, Abe Books
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"What do the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour judges find so funny about a couple of murderers?
     For the past two years, the prestigious medal has been won by works of dark humour.
     'People are saying "What’s so funny about The Sisters Brothers (by Patrick deWitt) when it’s about a couple of murderers?”' Mike Hill, president of the Stephen Leacock Association, said. 'It’s really dark material.'
     The Sisters Brothers won the medal this year while Practical Jean, by Trevor Cole, won in 2011.
     'It’s about a woman who goes around murdering her friends,' Hill said of Practical Jean. 'We’ve had two years in a row of very dark material winning.'
     Prompted by the public’s reaction, the Stephen Leacock Association will be having a discussion on defining humour at its annual general meeting Sunday.
     Joseph Kertes, dean of the school of creative and performing arts at Humber College in Toronto and a former Leacock Medal winner, will be leading the discussion.
     'Humour is very subjective,' Hill said. 'I think it changes over the decades. The Leacock Medal has reflected that evolution.'"
— Sara Ross, Orillia Packet & Times
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Two Canadians in the running for the £25,000 Walter Scott Prize

"Canadian authors Patrick deWitt and Esi Edugyan, who last clashed on the Booker shortlist, are competing again for a literary award – this time for the £25,000 Walter Scott prize for historical fiction.
     The award, established by Scott's distant relatives the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch to honour the author's achievements, goes to the best piece of historical fiction of the last year, using Scott's subtitle for his own novel Waverley: Tis Sixty Years Since, for its definition of 'historical.' Judges, chaired by author and historian Alistair Moffat and including television presenter Kirsty Wark, are looking for 'the ability of a book to shed light on the present as well as the past,' they said, as well as for quality, originality and innovation.
     DeWitt is shortlisted for The Sisters Brothers, his story of hired killers on the American west coast in 1851, while Edugyan is up for the prize for her second novel [Giller Prize winner] Half Blood Blues, about the disappearance of the black German jazz trumpeter Hieronymous Falk during the second world war."
— Alison Flood, The Guardian
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Alison Pick long-listed for the Man Booker

2011 Elora Writers' Festival reader Alison Pick is one of only thirteen authors from around the world selected for the 2011 Man Booker Prize long-list.

"The list of 13 nominees includes [Canadians] Alison Pick of Toronto, author of Far to Go; Vancouver-born Patrick deWitt, now living in Portland, Oregon, nominated for The Sisters Brothers; and Esi Edugyan of Victoria, author of Half Blood Blues."
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About Alison Pick's book Far to Go:

"[...] very deftly structured and the storytelling is seamless. [...] Far to Go appears poised to gain a wide and significant readership, and deservedly so."
- The Globe and Mail

"Weaving Czech history with a contemporary mystery, Far To Go shows terrific craft and emotional intelligence. A winner. " - NOW
Get Far to Go here...