The French literary world has been hit by a scandal after two people who served on prestigious book-prize juries alleged that bribes and favours steered the awards.

Details from the diaries of Jacques Brenner, a writer who served on a prize jury in the 1980s and 1990s, were published this week in Le Figaro magazine. The posthumous book of memoirs by Brenner has sparked outrage in France over the way book honours are handed out.

Brenner's diaries shed light on a world of bribes and favours involved in the 3,000 literary prizes that are given out every year in the country.

A position on a major jury is usually given to a writer for life. Though there is no payment, the position comes with plenty of invitations to author conferences, paid trips overseas funded by the government, publicity and the tacit knowledge that the writer's work would never be turned down by publishing houses vying for prizes.

Brenner said he was pressured to ensure prizes went to authors published by his employer, Grasset, one of France's major publishing houses.

"There is a relationship between the major publishing houses and their writers who sit on the prize juries that is very wrong," said Guy Konopnicki, a writer who recently called for the reform of the system, told the British newspaper, The Guardian.

"It is a system that is corrupt and corrupting."

Jury member ousted after confirming allegations

Brenner's revelations were confirmed this week when Madeleine Chapsal, one of the members of the all-woman Prix Femina jury, was expelled by her colleagues after she divulged behind-the-scenes discussions in a book about the awarding of the 2005 prize.

Chapsal's book indicates juries are awarding publishers rather than writers.

This year's honour was handed to Canadian-born novelist Nancy Huston for her book Lignes de Faille, written in French. Huston has lived in France since 1973.

Shadow cast over Prix Goncourt

Chapsal's eviction as well as the publication of Brenner's diaries has cast a shadow over the Prix Goncourt, to be handed out Monday evening. The Prix Goncourt, won by literary luminaries such as Marguerite Duras, Marcel Proust and Simone de Beauvoir, is regarded as France's highest literary honour.

Le Monde said Brenner's journals provided a portrait of the "intellectual wretchedness of the contemporary French literary milieu."

Four big companies regularly win two-thirds of the awards, and also publish the books of three-quarters of the jury members.