A prize for the funniest book will not be announced for the first time in its 18 year history as none of the novels made the judges laugh.

The prize for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction 2018 is being withheld after the judges decided that the 62 submissions for the coveted prize fell short of the the necessary funny-factor.

Organisers announced the decision yesterday meaning that the prize is expected to roll over to next year.

The judges admitted that whilst many of the entrants provided a chuckle here and there, none of the submissions really made the panel laugh out loud.

There will therefore be no one joining the ranks of P G Wodehouse, or the prize’s previous winners, such as Helen Fielding, Michael Frayn, Howard Jacobson, Marina Lewycka, and Alexander McCall Smith.

David Campbell, judge and publisher of Everyman’s Library, said: “My fellow judges and I have decided to withhold the prize this year to maintain the extremely high standards of comic fiction that the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize represents.