布莱尔回忆录被提名“拙劣性爱奖”

Former prime minister's memoir¹ nominated for prize dedicated² to clumsy erotic scenes in fiction.

英国前首相布莱尔的回忆录日前获得“拙劣性爱奖”提名，而这一“殊荣”原本只颁给小说作品。

'I was an animal' ... Tony Blair kisses Cherie.

Tony Blair has received a double insult from the Literary Review, with the nomination³ of his bestselling autobiography⁴（自传） , A Journey, for its bad sex award. The slight is not only to his skill at bedroom prose（散文，单调） , but also to his claims to historical accuracy, since the award is dedicated to clumsy（笨拙的） clinches⁵（拥吻，钉牢） in fiction.

The magazine's deputy editor Tom Fleming today confirmed the genre-busting nomination for the prize, which celebrates "poorly written, redundant⁶ or crude passages of a sexual nature". According to Fleming it is the first time a work of non-fiction has been up for the award. "It's absolutely unprecedented," he said. "He's groundbreaking in every way."

The former prime minister is nominated for a purple passage（辞藻华丽的段落） about the night spent with his wife Cherie following the news of the Labour leader John Smith's sudden death. "That night she cradled me in her arms and soothed⁷（安慰，缓和） me; told me what I needed to be told; strengthened me. On that night of 12 May 1994, I needed that love Cherie gave me, selfishly. I devoured⁸ it to give me strength. I was an animal following my instinct," Blair wrote.

Although the judging process is at an early stage, Fleming suggested that Blair would be a strong contender in a "good year" for the award, with Ian McEwan's Solar and Martin Amis's The Pregnant Widow already under consideration for the shortlist.

The shortlist for the Bad sex award is due to be announced next month, with the prize no author wants to win due to be awarded on 29 November.

Blair's nomination is not the first time that his autobiography has been classified as fiction, as bookshops have reported customers with anti-war sympathies repeatedly reshelving the book into the crime section, following a Facebook-led campaign. Now it seems, A Journey may be moving into erotic（色情的，性爱的） fiction.