It is first and foremost a literary prize, something I have to keep telling myself after reading the umpteenth eye-wateringly explicit gay sex scene.

Welcome, we²l'ku²m. a. Received with gladneſs, admitted willingly, grateful[…] Welcome, we²l'ku²m. interj. A form of ſalutation uſed to a new comer.

Of course Justice Mariner is something of a caninophile himself, never mind that Stong, his idiot golden retriever, is now in Penny Mariner's sole custody and I am actually the loyal companion animal […]

This sonorous balance of phrase and epithet cannot always escape what Milton himself calls the heathenish battology of multiplying words.