Carl Tighe: Rejected by 25 publishers

The Whitbread Prize, which this year increased its total prize fund to �50,000, is seen as second only to the Booker in the UK book world.

The prizes are awarded in six categories - best novel - which offers a �30,000 award - best first novel, best poetry collection, best biography, best children's book - and the book of the year, chosen from the other five categories.

Among the well-known authors' names on the shortlists are Monty Python's Terry Jones, nominated in the children's category for The Lady And The Squire, and poet Wendy Cope, nominated for her collection If I Don't Know.

Nominations for debut novels include Burning Worm by Carl Tighe.

Ibbotsen: A prize nominee at 76

Tighe, 51, had his book rejected by more than 25 publishers before his former landlady organised the printing of 250 copies.

The novel is about an English teacher's experience in Poland during the rise of the Solidarity movement.

Gerard Woodward, 40, who supports his writing by looking after vending machines at Manchester University, is also nominated for his first novel, August.

And Eva Ibbotsen, 76, is shortlisted for the children's book prize.

Ibbotsen has written six children's books and her nominated title, Journey To The River Sea, has also been shortlisted for the Guardian's Children's Prize.

The Whitbread Prizes, which are open only to writers based in the UK and Ireland, are awarded in January 2002.