Blair's coupling with Cherie is up for a Bad Sex Award

"That night she cradled me in her arms and soothed me; told me what I needed to be told; strengthened me ... On that night of 12 May 1994 I needed that love [she] gave me, selfishly. I devoured it to give me strength. I was an animal following my instinct ... "

If you haven't already guessed it, this toe-curling passage is the work of the former prime minster Tony Blair, who reminisced about a night of passion with his wife, Cherie, in his new autobiography, A Journey.

Yesterday the paragraph won Mr Blair the dubious honour of a nomination for the least-coveted prize in literature – the Bad Sex Award. He becomes the first writer of a non-fiction work to be considered.

Other writers in the running for the prize, which is awarded by the Literary Review, include Martin Amis for The Pregnant Widow, Ian McEwan for Solar and Jonathan Franzen for Freedom.

Past winners include Sebastian Faulks, Philip Kerr and Melvyn Bragg.

Last month David Cameron wrote that one of the lessons of Tony Blair's memoirs was that "politicians should keep quiet about their animal instincts".