BOOKS:LLOYD OF LONDON

From the Sunday Star Times Sunday, 14 October 2007

Will Mr Pip pip them at the post?

Veteran of literary awards judging panels Graham Beattie takes the air of literary London on the eve of this week's Man Booker prize announcement.

Riding in the cab from Paddington Station to my accommodation in Clerkenwell, (14 quids worth), I knew I was in the Man Booker home city when the cab driver, after establishing I was a Kiwi, said "what chance then guv has your bloke got of winning the Booker? Better than the All Blacks I hope. The bookies seem to think he's in with a chance."

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is the full name but in London as at home most simply call it The Booker, the literary prize awarded each year for the best full-length original novel, written in English, by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.

Originally known as the Booker-McConnell Prize, after the original sponsors, it was first awarded in 1969 and quickly became simply The Booker.
When investment company Man Group became the sponsors in 2002 they elected to retain Booker as part of the official title for the prize. They also increased the prize money significantly to 50,000 ($NZ134,000).

Perhaps even more valuable than the prize money is the fact that Man Booker winners remain in print for many years thereafter finding themselves on library, university and book club lists, and being translated into other languages all resulting in significant royalties.
Kiwi Keri Hulme's The Bone People, the surprise 1985 winner, beating the other shortlisted titles by heavyweights Peter Carey, JLCarr, Doris Lessing, Jan Morris and Iris Murdoch, has remained in print until this day.

For the rest of my story that appeared in the Sunday Star Times today use this link.