Are novellas finally coming into their own or do you think they haven't quite found traction in the literary mainstream? I fell in love with Orbital by Samantha Harvey, a mere 144 pages. Some of my favourite books are short; Animal Farm (92 pages) by George Orwell, Fahrenheit 451 (156 pages) by Ray Bradbury and Night (144 pages) by Elie Wiesel. How much emphasis should be given the term 'novella' and is it necessary to make the distinction? As always I would love to have recommendations for novellas (short books 😜)

James mentioned having title fomo with regards to the ten finalists which got me thinking about the importance of titles. Sometimes simplicity speaks volumes such as Lolita, Rebecca, Night, 1984, Dune and Stoner. The wonderful Mr King is particularly adept at minimal word titles; It, Misery, Cujo, Carrie and Christine to name just a few. The job of a title is to arouse intrigue and an excellent title will lodge in your memory. So many times I've wanted to recommend a book and I've faltered because I couldn't remember the title. Some of my favourites: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller. Some of the best titles almost didn't happen, for example 'Gone With The Wind' was almost titled 'Tote The Weary Load' (I kid you not) and 'The Sound and the Fury' was almost called 'Twilight'. What are some of your favourites?

It's done. After five hundred and forty entries, more reading and re-reading than I can account for, and a great deal of heated debate, we have our final ten. These are the openings our judges have chosen to carry through to the last stage of the Marlowe & Christie Novel Prize. Reaching this point, out of a field this large and this genuinely strong, is no small thing, and I want to say clearly that the standard across the whole competition this year has been extraordinary. If you were commended or highly commended and aren't on this list, that is not a verdict on your book. The line had to fall somewhere, and it fell among work I'd happily have championed either side of it. The final ten (in no particular order): 🔟 The Break-up Artist 🔟 A Murder of Crows 🔟 Sea of Clouds 🔟 Flotsam 🔟 Pigeons 🔟 The Dog That Didn't Bark 🔟 Crooked Little Smile 🔟 All That Has Wings 🔟 Nonsuch Island 🔟 Rathaus Here's what happens now. These ten go forward together, anonymously, judged on the writing alone, to be read by four people from the publishing world. The winners will be chosen from this stage. They are: 📚 Alec Shane — a literary agent at Writers House in New York, one of the largest and most established agencies in the world, representing fiction from literary and historical to crime, thriller and horror. 📚 Jenny Hewson — a literary agent at Lutyens & Rubinstein in London, who joined after a decade at Rogers, Coleridge & White. The authors she represents have been shortlisted for and won prizes including the Booker and the Women's Prize, and she has a particular love of distinctive literary voices. 📚 Katie Seaman — an editor who spent a decade commissioning fiction at major publishing houses including Penguin Random House and HarperCollins, now a freelance editor and book coach across commercial and literary fiction. 📚 Patrick Gleeson — a novelist whose Theatreland Mystery series (Hattie Brings the House Down, Hattie Steals the Show and Hattie Breaks a Leg) is published by Bedford Square.

Having lost most of my body weight in sweat I started thinking about the effect weather has on characters and mood. There is a wonderful term for this, Pathetic Fallacy, which basically means the mood of a character or the tone of a scene can be beautifully captured when human emotions are ascribed to weather and seasons. Poets love using this method but authors can also benefit. I'd love to know if anyone has any examples of this or books where weather and seasons are masterfully described and crafted. I think Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath describes the dust bowl so well its advisable to have a cool glass of water on standby before reading. Mary Shelly also utilises the environment beautifully by presenting humanities coldness in scenes set in the artic.

Both of these are incredibally important and literary agents would argue the first para is vital as it has to grab the reader and reel them in. I think last paragraphs are just as important; these are the final thoughts and final interaction with the narrator, author, protagonist/antagonist etc. A beautiful final para will make you feel bereft for leaving the world or the characters. I'm not necessarily talking about a Shyamalan twist, it could just be something simple, subtle. What springs to mind for me is the final para in Sophie's Choice; dreamily descriptive and unassuming.