Judging a literary prize such as the Orange requires great feats of endurance from judges. “I left the meeting slightly hysterical, convinced that there was no way I would ever finish these novels – 46 in six weeks in the first batch, although I would read 71 in total – and certain that my swotty fellow judges would. So at 2am that night I realised I needed to make a schedule. Weekends were best – say, six novels – and then a couple in the week, in the odd spare evenings or on the bus. This was the exact opposite of the languorous pleasure I usually take from reading, and the intensity had consequences.”