Tears, tiffs and triumphs

One judge threatened to throw himself off a balcony, another provoked a punch-up, a third was chatted up in the taxi home by Saul Bellow ... To mark the 40th anniversary of the Booker prize and the impending announcement of the 2008 shortlist, we asked a judge from every year to tell us the inside story of how the winner was chosen.
The Guardian,
Saturday September 6 2008

This fascinating story was brought to my attention by a NZ bookseller friend who is presently on holiday in France. He is without his laptop and is reliant on The Guardian for English language news. He posted me a copy of this Review section of the Saturday Guardian because as he said “the essence of the article on the Man Booker Prize is best captured on paper”.
I agree with him but for purposes of bringing this to my blog readers it will have to be done electronically.
It is an amazing piece of reporting, I found it totally fascinating, rivetting in fact. I mention especially David Lodges's comments on the 1989 Booker and Victoria Glendinning on the 1992 result. But actually there is not a dud among them. Do read it.

Here for example is what one of the 1985 judges, Marina Warner, had to say about the year Keri Hulme's The Bone People won the prize.

1985 Marina Warner
I think that the best argument for the whole cruel and unfair business of prizes is that they can lead readers to writers who wouldn't otherwise be read much or perhaps at all. I didn't think Lessing needed the prize (and she would agree) and certainly not for a novel that is not her best (though it's a feature of prizes that authors often win for their weakest works).
Norman St John Stevas was our chair, and early on that summer he picked out a number of books which he recommended his panel to read. Among them was a surprise, a bulky novel called The Bone People by Keri Hulme. Alongside the many gleamingly designed offerings from the major publishing houses, it had the distinction of being published by a women's cooperative in New Zealand, who, when the book won the prize against very high odds, came up in full island dress to collect it, chanting a Maori praise song.
Feelings in the final meeting - and afterwards - ran very high about this novel, but St John Stevas unexpectedly championed it throughout. Nina Bawden opposed it very strongly on the grounds of its violence (the novel tells a terrifying story of child-beatings), and wrote later publicly to distance herself from the decision. Nina found herself significantly outnumbered in her opposition, because Joanna Lumley didn't attend the final judging. She sent a message to say she was in rehearsal and that her nominated winner was Doris Lessing, for The Good Terrorist. When she heard The Bone People had won, she too dissociated herself from the judgment. JW Lambert and I supported the book.

Put an hour aside and read comments from every year since the prize’s inception. Link here.

Can any NZ readers imagine this sort of reporting coming from the judges of the Montana NZ Book Awards over the years?