Hilary Mantel v Daily Mail

After discussing various queens in her LRB lecture "Royal Bodies", Hilary Mantel (who had just collected another prize, the Costa book of the year) came to the Duchess of Cambridge. In contrast to Diana ("more royal than the family she joined"), she argued, Kate seemed "a shop window mannequin" apparently "designed by a committee and built by craftsmen, with a perfect plastic smile … precision-made, machine-made". Ripped out of context in the Mail as an "astonishing attack" on the nation's darling and heir-bearer, this made for a fine brouhaha, with leader writers, trolls and Messrs Cameron and Miliband doing most of the Mantel-bashing. But the Mail itself staged a debate between Julie Burchill (defending Mantel and calling Kate "Diana Lite") and AN Wilson. Mantel's defenders elsewhere included Sam Leith and Hadley Freeman.

Man Booker prize v British authors

After unveiling the 2013 prize's shortlist, Booker organisers were forced, by a newspaper leak, into a hastily arranged announcement that the 2014 prize would welcome all UK‑published fiction in English. Reaction from British authors was overwhelmingly hostile, with AS Byatt, Julian Barnes, Melvyn Bragg, Jim Crace, Antonia Fraser, Linda Grant, Philip Hensher, Howard Jacobson and Jeanette Winterson all anti. Among leading novelists, only AL Kennedy and Eleanor Catton came out in favour including Americans and others and publishers and agents (having US novelists on their lists too) tended to be pro or neutral. Meanwhile, the side-feud between the Booker and the new Folio prize (which from the outset had said Americans would be eligible) continued, as the rival award issued a statement* expressing "surprise" and faux-concern that the Booker had decided to "abandon its parameters", ie possibly mischievously positing an identity crisis. Booker types insisted, to widespread disbelief, that the move's timing (and its new "e-academy") had nothing to do with the upstart award.

Jonathan Franzen v Amazon, Twitter and Rushdie

Perhaps because it embraced the entirety of the contemporary west, Franzen's denunciation in a Guardian essay of "technoconsumerism" – which distracts us from impending disaster by enslaving us to online shopping (with Amazon's Jeff Bezos called a "horseman of the apocalypse") and social media – offered little for his many critics to get a handle on – except for his criticism of Salman Rushdie for "succumbing" to Twitter, and a follow-up radio interview on the Today programme criticising publishers for requiring authors to tweet. @SalmanRushdie pointed out that he, Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates, Nathan Englander and Gary Shteyngart were all avid tweeters, and told him to "enjoy your ivory tower" (although Rushdie has since announced a social media sabbatical). Other writers on Twitter, such as @sophiehannahCB1, joined in, with the most sarcastic reaction coming from @Tao_Lin, who seemingly mocked Franzen's apocalyptic scenario with a tweet urging his followers: "INVASION RED ALERT RED ALERT MAN THE BATTLE STATIONS".

Bret Easton Ellis v everyone

In a year of largely anaemic American spats, only the American Psycho author fulfilled predictions that Twitter might revive the dying art of feuding. What makes Easton Ellis so widely disliked, besides apparent misogyny, is his penchant for attacking revered figures who are either dead or elderly and frail: David Foster Wallace was slated early on in 2013, and @BretEastonEllis wasted no time, after Alice Munro's Nobel prize was announced, in denouncing her as "completely overrated … The Nobel is a joke and has been for ages". Luckily for other writers, his focus now is on films: a key target this year was British screenwriter Kelly Marcel, who got the gig he wanted as adapter of 50 Shades of Grey.

Nigella critics v Team Nigella

As with Hilary Mantel, criticising or ridiculing the bestselling author and TV cook was largely a task for news editors, trolls and columnists, but some of them were also writers of books: the Telegraph's Allison Pearson, for example, took a sceptical line early on ("No one envies the Domestic Goddess now") in the trial of two former aides to Lawson and Charles Saatchi. Since Lawson gave evidence, authors have increasingly lined up on the other side. The Observer writer and novelist, Elizabeth Day, hailed her "cool and confident" performance. Salman Rushdie was photographed dining with her, after tweeting "the courage, clarity, truth-telling and dignity of @Nigella_Lawson [are] in stark contrast to Saatchi's mendacious bullying. Good riddance!". Other supporters have included @stephenfry, @caitlinmoran and @lenadunham ("she could blow rails off my face and I'd still be #TeamNigella").