Letter: Late windbags

Sir: It is perverse of Mark Lawson (4 April) to depict the Late Show's coverage of the Booker Prize as courageously "bloody-minded". He seems to think it admirable to sabotage a literary promotion by cavalierly throwing away the audience. The bravery of a coterie of critics spending 50 minutes of prime time windbagging, while millions of potential book readers switch off, is hard to discern.

It might have been more profitable for the Late Show to collaborate with the Book Council to create a better award process and a better programme. As it is, they did untold damage to the cause of widening the audience for literature. Did the TV controllers privately relish this?

Yours,

ROWLAND MORGAN

Chairman

The World One-Day Novel Cup

Groucho Club

London, W1