Captain Moonlight: Not on the list

ORION publishing says it is entirely coincidental that it is giving a party 'to celebrate the success' of Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy on Monday, 25 October, the day before the Booker Prize dinner. Seth's book, you will remember, was omitted from the Booker shortlist to the surprise of many, and none more than Anthony Cheetham, Orion's chairman, who called the judges 'a bunch of wankers'. Lord Gowrie, chairman of the judges, said there was nothing wrong with the book that a little Gowrie editing couldn't have sorted out. A spokeswoman for Orion couldn't say if Gowrie was on the 100-strong Seth party list.