Vince Cable
Vince Cable assured the sex in his book Open Arms was 'discreet' Getty

KEY POINTS

  • Lib Dem leader's Open Arms fails to make 2017 shortlist of books "outstandingly bad" descriptions of sex.
  • Literally Review says nominations rejected because he is an MP despite "many people" putting name forward.

Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable has avoided the embarrassment of being included in this year's Bad Sex in Fiction award shortlist, despite receiving nominations from "many people".

The Literally Review's annual award commemorating authors who have written "outstandingly bad" descriptions of sex in an otherwise good novel has announced this year's shortlist, with Laurent Blinet, Venetia Welby and Neil Griffiths among the nominations.

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However, the 74-year-old MP has not made the cut following the release of his debut book Open Arms, a romantic novel about a backbench Tory MP who falls for a young Indian businessman during a trip to Mumbai to discuss trade deals.

The Lib Dem leader previously spoke about how he was sure the book would not be nominated because the sexual descriptions which feature are "very descreet".

Speaking to the BBC's John Pienaar, Cable said: "It is not actually about sex – the sex is very discreet, it is not going to win the Bad Sex award.

"It is, I hope, a thriller. It is written as part of the Robert Harris genre. Not as good as that obviously, I am a beginner. It is going to break on the world in a couple of months' time."

Announcing the nominations, the judges at the Literal Review award confirmed Cable has not been nominated this year, but not due to the quality, or lack of, of the book.

They said: "Many people also nominated Vince Cable's novel Open Arms for consideration. However, Open Arms does not qualify simply because its author is a Member of Parliament."

Elsewhere, the judges revealed that Monique Roffey's The Tryst has also not made the shortlist despite the book featuring passages such as "He lightly kissed my breasts, his beard all grassy, like a great sea sponge."

This is because the purpose of the prize is to draw attention to "poorly written, perfunctory or redundant passages of sexual description in modern fiction" and does not cover pornographic or expressly erotic literature.

Bad Sex in Fiction Award 2017: Read the painful extracts from this year's nominations