"Now we'll see who takes the final honours – I hope it's an epic contest".
Whilst I don't have First Class honours, I do have the benefit of hindsight, which is almost as good.
I was delighted to become Sarah Stevenson MBE in the New Year's honours; I hope my parents can see me now because I know they'd be incredibly proud.
"So when I found out they were giving me an OBE in the New Year's honours, I had this idea of myself as Lear taking his daughters to the palace".
Were Steve Toltz to have scooped the honours I would perhaps have complained about A Fraction Of The Whole's lack of restraint, but agreed that this was a talented writer who is hopefully on the road to something very impressive in the long run.
I'm also now embarrassed to admit that if Philip Hensher had taken the honours, I was ready to be yet more spiteful and declare it a Tory plot and lay down a few conspiracy theories about how Michael Portillo's chairmanship had returned the most conspicuously rightwing Booker winner to date.
