Man Booker winner heads all-male John Llewellyn Rhys Prize shortlist

AN all-male shortlist headed by Man Booker winner Aravind Adiga is announced for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize today.

The £5,000 prize is awarded to the best work of literature by a British or Commonwealth writer aged 35 or under. It is the first list without a woman for 15 years.

The White Tiger by Adiga, 34, is one of four debut works listed. The others are God's Own Country by Ross Raisin, 29; The Bloody White Baron, a biography of mad Baltic baron Ungern-Sternbeg by James Palmer, 27; and Selling Your Father's Bones, part travelogue, part history of the Nez Perce native Americans by Brian Schofield. The other contenders are Adam Foulds with The Broken Word, his first poetry book, and The Secret Life of Words by critic Henry Hitchings, 34.

Henry Sutton, chairman of the judges, said: "All exhibit an assurance and vitality rare in contemporary literature. That all are by men is another matter we simply picked the best books."

The winner will be announced on 24 November.