Adam Mars-Jones Wields the Hatchet

His "killingly fair-minded and viciously funny" review of the Pulitzer prize-winning author Michael Cunningham's latest book, By Nightfall, has won novelist and critic Adam Mars-Jones the inaugural Hatchet Job of the Year award. The Hatchet Job prize is given to the "writer of the angriest, funniest, most trenchant book review" of the past year "not to punish bad writing, but to reward good and brave and funny and learned reviewing". It was launched by the Omnivore website, which gathers press reviews of books, films and plays, and judged by the journalists Sam Leith, Suzi Feay, Rachel Johnson and DJ Taylor. Mars-Jones was given his prize of a golden hatchet and a year's supply of potted shrimp, courtesy of The Fish Society, in an awards ceremony at The Coach and Horses pub in Soho.