The Comedy Women in Print prize is the brainchild of comedian and actor Helen Lederer and was established in 2018 to celebrate and support female comedy writers. The two published prize winners receive a cash prize and the unpublished winner receives a publishing contract with Harper Collins.

This year’s shortlist was as follows:

Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallan.

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams.

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman.

Reasons to Be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe.

Frankisstein by Jeanette Winterson.

The Blessed Girl by Angela Makhola.

As you may or may not know, this year saw the inaugural shadow panel. Alongside Clare from Years of Reading Selfishly, Susan from Books are My Cwtches, Stacey from Whispering Stories and Danielle from The Reading Closet, we read our way through the shortlist.  It was then a virtual 20 paces at dawn as we battled our way to a winner. In reality, we had a lovely, lively discussion, chaired by Kath Eastman from The Nut Press. You’d possibly think that the panel and the shadow judges would probably chose the same books. After all, we were all reading the same things. Well, you’d be wrong, and that just shows how subjective reading, and humour is.

As for our winner? Well that was Abbi Waxman with The Bookish Life of Nina Hill.

You can read my review here.

Here’s a snippet of what we all had to say:

I am going to start off… by proudly declaring myself as a Nina Hill super fan! I absolutely love her! From the first page to the last word, every sentence made me smile, laugh and sigh with happiness. Nina is in one word perfection. – Susan.

I truly loved The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, Abbi has developed a fictional character that I wished was real and that I could be friends with. The Bookish Life Of Nina Hill is such a feel good, uplifting novel… you’ll find it difficult not to smile, giggle and just feel happy while delving into the life of Nina – Danielle.

Books about books are my kryptonite… There are humorous moments… raising wry smiles and laughs… A lovely, warm read, filled with characters to amuse.– Janet.

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill is a warm, amusing, insightful novel that I completely loved. Nina is such an amazing character… It was great to see an introvert take centre stage… You will also giggle along at her view on life, it certainly gives you that feel-good factor. – Stacey.

Nina Hill sparkles because of her wit and smart one liners – her ability to comment with the perfect line with perfect timing means this novel zings off the page. – Clare.

Our runner up was The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary.

You can read my review here.

Here are some insights into our thoughts on The Flatshare:

What I loved about this book was that it was raw and had some hard-hitting issues and whilst they were dealt with using a lot of compassion, there were also lots of hilarious moments to keep you smiling too. – Stacey.

I practically inhaled this book… I loved this from the opening pages to the last post it note. There wasn’t anything I didn’t like about it. A funny, warm, encompassing read. – Janet

The Flatshare shows that you can read a romantic, comedic novel that will turn all the cliches on its head, but at the same time it is whip-smart, genuinely funny, and made me wish I had a Leon of my own in my life. – Clare.

…deeply moving, relevant and funny and joylessly uplifting! What makes Flatshare such a wonderful read is the warmth that permeates the story and the humour that stops it becoming dark. – Susan.

Beth O’Leary has written a brilliantly uplifting rom-com that will have you smiling until your cheeks ache and possibly spraying coffee out of your nose all over your kindle / paperback due to all the hilarious and cringy situations both Leon and Tiffy get themselves into. – Danielle.