Take That Reviewers..

2007 Booker Prize committee chairman, Sir Howard Davies, used this week's award ceremonies to take a stab at the current state of book reviewing. He stopped short of accusing established novelists of using reviews to "scratch each others backs," but that was pretty much the underlying message.

...too many reviewers praised “every effort” by established writers while ignoring the newer talents. The latest books by Jeanette Winterson, Ben Okri and J. M. Coetzee received glowing reviews even though the works did not live up to their previous writings. “There appear to be some novels where people leave their critical faculties at home. They decide ‘so and so is a great novelist’ or ‘an up-and-coming novelist’, and give them the reverential treatment,...

His target was the UK novelists who review their peer's works - but I think it applied equally to the state of book reviewing on this side of The Pond too.

Check out this article in the London TIMES for more.