Fire, torment and villainy await Chris Grayling in novel punishment for prison book ban

Novelist Kathy Lette plans revenge on justice secretary Chris Grayling by giving his name to a corrupt character in her next novel. But what could other dastardly Graylings get up to in future fiction from Drabble, Pullman, McEwan and co?

There have been petitions to Downing Street, letters and protests in a bid to reverse the frankly indefensible decision from the Ministry of Justice to prevent books being sent to prisoners. But Kathy Lette has hit upon a route that may prove more effective in removing the ban than persuasion: humiliation.

Lette told the New York Times that her new novel Courting Trouble "will feature a corrupt lawyer named Chris Grayling who ends up in a prison where he is deprived of reading matter and goes insane". Good lord.

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