Booker chair slams 'sloppy editing'
09.09.09 Catherine Neilan in The Bokseller

The chair of the judging panel for the Man Booker prize has heralded 2009 as a "vintage" year, despite criticising a number of submissions for their "sloppy editing".
Speaking at last night's shortlist event, Radio 4 journalist James Naughtie said there had been "some bad books, and some awful books" and there was "sloppy editing . . . in some very good books". He added: "There was also some very, very bad sex. But as someone put it to me, that is a bit like life."
The prize's literary director Ion Trewin, meanwhile, highlighted the impact this year's longlist had on sales as "greater... than ever before". He said this suggested the public "trusts" the judges' recommendations.
The panel, which includes biographer and critic Lucasta Miller, literary editor of the Sunday Telegraph Michael Prodger, academic and journalist John Mullan, and comedian and broadcaster Sue Perkins, read 132 titles before selecting the longlist 13 last month.
The six to make it to the shortlist were announced yesterday.

The shortlist in full:
A S Byatt The Children's Book (Random House, Chatto and Windus)
J M Coetzee Summertime (Random House, Harvill Secker)
Adam Foulds The Quickening Maze (Random House, Jonathan Cape)
Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall (HarperCollins, Fourth Estate)
Simon Mawer The Glass Room (Little, Brown)
Sarah Waters The Little Stranger (Little, Brown, Virago)

And a footnote from BookBrunch:
At the Man Booker shortlist party yesterday (8 September), James Naughtie, Chair of the judges, got in a nice little dig at the Costa awards. He would not get to his feet at the awards dinner, he assured us, to say that the winning book had a disappointing ending. You may remember that Matthew Parris said something of that sort about Sebastian Barry's Costa-winning The Secret Scripture.
Also overheard at the Orangery, from a senior publisher: "Isn't it great news that there are no independents on the shortlist?"