Recommended by Richard and Judy

There is a Richard and Judy Christmas books special on TV tonight and an article in The Times book section discusses the power the celebrity couple have over influencing the titles people choose when they go into a shop. The piece reports that according to The Bookseller one in every 50 books sold in Britain is recommended by Richard and Judy and while they have chosen some good reads there is always the hint of a suggestion that what they are doing is not quite right because it puts so much influence into the hands of just a couple of people.
On the one hand if it gets people reading then great. But on the flip side, the more cynical side, judging by the assembled celebrities lining-up tonight (Rupert Everett, Michael palin and Billie Piper) to get you to buy their autobiographies, maybe the old cliché about power without responsibility comes into play here, and there has to be some sort of questioning about the role publishers are playing in this promotion game, the general quality of the recommendations and how books are chosen to get on the shortlist of what is promoted by R and J.