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Derek McGovern tips Ellen Feldman for Orange Prize

By Matt | May 20, 2009

FOOTBALL tipping guru Derek McGovern has offered up Scottsboro: A Novel, Ellen Feldman’s novel set in 1930s Alabama, as his betting tip for the 2009 Orange Prize.

McGovern admits he hasn’t read the six books on the all-female shortlist, but says he’s passing on “a whisper”, which may or may not be the fact that William Hill make the novel its 2/1 favourite to win the award.

With its themes of rape allegations and racism in Jim Crow Deep South, Scottsboro evokes memories of perennial sixth-form favourite To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s also based on a true story, and both these factors could work in its favour.

According to Waterstones, the case “kick-started America’s Civil Rights movement,” which may be pushing things a bit. There was a Depression, a World War and a quarter of a century before Rosa Parks choice of bus seat became the focal point of a new black consciousness, one whose message spread nationwide thanks to the 1950s spread of television.

Still, although McGovern glibly dismisses the comments of the Orange Prize’s head judge as “the kind of c**p these broads come out with,” but he’s being disingenuous. He doesn’t generally offer up a tip unless he knows what he’s talking about and comments may well be macho posturing. Anyone interested in a bet on the Orange Prize could do worse than follow his advice and take Hill’s 2/1.

You can also get 40 per cent off Scottsboro at Amazon.

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