You and me could write a Bad Romance...

On a similar theme, the Guardian and Observer this week are launching a series about the Romantic poets. From tomorrow, each day the paper will include a booklet about an influential poet of the era, including Keats, Shelley, Byron, Coleridge and Wordsworth. The booklets will contain some of their finest works, excerpts of personal correspondance and a foreward from a well known admirer; names such as Margaret Drabble, Andrew Motion, and even Germain Greer appearing. In honour of the series, Andrew Motion has recorded a podcast which can be found here

Wyld to win...

The winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize has been announced today as Evie Wyld. The debut novelist beat off competition from Booker Prize winner Aravind Adiga and Orange Prize winner Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Set in eastern Australia, where her family own a sugar cane farm, 'After the Fire, A Still Small Voice', was acclaimed by the judges as, 'fantastically mature... never showy, a slow burn that drags the reader in...Wyld captures the inflections of male speech and male bonding in a way that feels both acute and realistic.' Wyld, a bookseller from Peckham, walks away with a £5,000 prize. Previous winners include Margaret Drabble and Andrew Motion.

Short story award...

The shortlist for the BBC National Short Story Award was announced yesterday. For the first time, it has been an all women affair, including names such as Lionel Shriver, Sara Maitland and Naomi Alderman. One of the nominated stories will be read each afternoon on BBC Radio 4 at 3:30p.m. during next week, with the winner announced on the 7th December. Dame Margaret Drabble is part of a judging panel which also includes broadcaster Tom Sutcliffe, who said of the prize, 'What's exciting about the short story is that there are less limits... excellent writing in very different forms and voices'. The winner of the accolade will receive £15,000, the runner up £3,000 and a further three authors £500 each.