But now literature is the next creative sphere to get the talent contest treatment. Currently being promoted as Pop idol’s intellectual nemesis, 'Lit Idol' is on a mission to discover the best unpublished crime novelist. With the winner receiving representation by the Curtis Brown literary agency.

But the best part of the affair is they've managed to bag a certain Mr Cowell to sit on the judging panel. Alas, it's not the pseudo Machiavellian pop Geppetto Simon, but his sibling Tony.

And what qualifies Tony to be involved you may ask. Well he's worked as a
journalist and literary agent, not to mention writing Simon's biography.

Perhaps I should have entered my own short novella about a purely fictitious freelance lifestyle journalist, turning to a life of felony to survive life's infinite cruelties.

Unfortunately, I'm a little too idle to actually write it.

Lit Idol
Mr Cowell and his fellow panelists will be meeting at the London Book Fair today to award one of the five finalists the prize. Each finalist’s 10,000-word submission is available to read at TheBookPlace.com