Even the literary lions themselves are not necessarily critical.

I understand that petition-gatherers have had some difficulty in rounding up the usual literary lions.

He liked to play the stevedore, rather than the literary lion.

He is not a household name in the pantheon of literary lions, but he has been hailed by critics for his books.

This year, as ever, the judges did a bit of headhunting among literary lions in assembling their long and short lists.

Clearly, his gift for bridging the gap between literary lions and the world of popular culture was very much in demand.

"I didn't sleep with him," she tells a friend, soon after meeting this literary lion.

All in all, he has been one of our more innocuous literary lions.

The literary lions ambled out, and the younger crowd took over.

Later, however, he was recognized as one of the nation's literary lions.