diary.

Presents diary entries of the author. Entry five days before the Whitbread Book of the Year dinner in which his book "Orwell: the life" is a candidate and thoughts of how book awards may not be as awful as he had previously thought; Reflections on the Kilroy-Silk affair on the ease with which people use the term "racist"; Review of a book which had him send a letter to a novelist who now sits on the Whitbread jury and will be judging his book; Reflections on the upcoming literary prize dinner.