Big bad Wolfe has terrible sex

'Slithering tongues' and 'otorhinolaryngological caverns' were just two of the the terms that have earned writer Tom Wolfe a Bad Sex award.

Judges said descriptions of sexual acts in his latest novel I Am Charlotte Simmons were 'ghastly, inept and unrealistic.'

The term otorhinolaryngological - which means of the ears, nose and throat - and sentences such as: 'Slither slither slither slither went the tongue, but the hand that was what she tried to concentrate on, the hand, since it has the entire terrain of her torso to explore,' provoked particular scorn.

The Bad Sex in Fiction Award given by the Literary Review has previously been won by Melvyn Bragg, Alan Titchmarsh and AA Gill. Wolfe, the acclaimed author of Bonfire of the Vanities and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, was not expected to travel from the US to London to collect his award.