He is fast becoming the writer to whom the literary establishment loves to deny awards, but Ian McEwan may at last be about to get his Atonement. His novel of that name, which has outsold all comers in the heavyweight stakes this year, will have two bites at the £45,000 WH Smith awards.
Passed over by both Booker and Whitbread juries despite being the clear bookmakers' favourite, Atonement was yesterday shortlisted in both the fiction and literary categories of the WH Smith awards.
Since the awards claim to be the only books prize where the public chooses the winner, McEwan stands a fighting chance of redressing the balance in the fiction section, where he is up against the challenge of Nick Hornby's How To Be Good.
However, in the literary award - which alone among the nine WH Smith prizes is chosen by a panel thick with worthies - he is again at the mercy of the literati.
There is also a nomination for the German-born novelist WG Sebald, who was killed in a car crash last year shortly after the publication of Austerlitz, and Niall Griffith's story of a drug-and hate-filled Welsh killer, Sheepshagger.
Titans also clash in the biography/autobiography category where the former Speaker of the House of Commons, Betty Boothroyd, is pitted against the figure who glories in the title of "nastiest woman in Britain", Anne Robinson, with Memoirs Of An Unfit Mother.
Philip Pullman's Amber Spyglass is the shock omission from the children's awards, where the doyenne of teenage grit-lit, Jacqueline Wilson, can count on sackfuls of votes for Dustbin Baby.
In the kitchen stakes, TV chefs Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson and Rick Stein go head-to-head with the trendy Moro cookbook.
More than 65,000 took part in voting for last year's awards, and this time votes will be taken on the internet, by post, and even handed in at WH Smith shops.
Authors in the running
Fiction
Atonement: Ian McEwan
Five Quarters of the Orange: Joanne Harris
How to be Good: Nick Hornby
Warlock: Wilbur Smith
The Last Time They Met: Anita Shreve
Literary prize
Sheepshagger: Niall Griffiths
Atonement: Ian McEwan
The Fire Fighter: Francis Cottam
Death in Holy Orders: PD James
Austerlitz: WG Sebald
New Talent
The Eyre Affair: Jasper Fforde
Kissing in Manhattan: David Schickler
Backpack: Emily Barr
The Death of Vishnu: Manil Suri
The Mind Game: Hector MacDonald
Biography/Autobiography
Betty Boothroyd: The Autobiography
Billy: Pamela Stephenson
Madonna: J Randy Taraborrelli
Give Me Ten Seconds: John Sergeant
Memoirs of an Unfit Mother: Anne Robinson
Children
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents: Terry Pratchett
Dustbin Baby: Jacqueline Wilson
Artemis Fowl: Eoin Colfer
Out of the Ashes: Michael Morpurgo
Stargirl: Jerry Spinelli
Home & Leisure
Nigella Bites: Nigella Lawson
Moro: The Cookbook: Sam & Sam Clark
Happy Days with the Naked Chef: Jamie Oliver
Rick Stein's Seafood: Rick Stein
Colour for Adventurous Gardeners: Christopher Lloyd
Business
Simply Brilliant: Fergus O'Connell
Jack: What I've Learned Leading a Great Company and Great People: Jack Welch and John A Byrne
The Rise and Fall of Marks & Spencer: Judi Bevan
Boo Hoo: A Dot.com Story from Concept to Catastrophe: Ernst Malmsten, Erik Portanger and Charles Drazin
Shackleton's Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antartic Explorer: Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell
General Knowledge
The Floating Brothel: Sin Rees
In Harm's Way: Doug Stanton
Animal: David Burnie (editor-in-chief)
The Blue Planet: Alastair Fothergill, Martha Holmes, and Andrew Byatt
The Earth from the Air 365 Days: Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Travel Writing
Are You Dave Gorman? Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace
French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France: Tim Moore
The Weekenders: Various authors
Extra Virgin: Annie Hawes
Mañana Mañana: Peter Kerr
