Mantel becomes first ever odds-on Booker favourite
06.10.09 Catherine Neilan The Bookseller

Hilary Mantel is the "hottest favourite ever" to win the Man Booker Prize for her historical novel Wolf Hall, even though Simon Mawer has made a late burst.
Mantel has led the pack since the shortlist was announced a month ago, but is now the first-ever odds-on favourite, with Labrokes taking bets for her to win at 8/13 and William Hill at 10/11.

However, the bookies' favourite has not picked up the coveted prize in seven years, when Yann Martell's Life of Pi picked up the 2002 prize. JM Coetzee - also in the running this year - had been the favourite in 1999 for his winning novel Disgrace.
Simon Mawer has seen his book, The Glass Room, rise from 14/1 outsider to the second favourite at 7/2 at William Hill, but remains at 6/1 odds at Ladbrokes, where Coetzee's Summertime and Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger tie in second place at odds of 5/1.
Nick Weinberg, spokesman for Ladbrokes, said more than 80% of all wagers had gone for Mantel. "There's only one name on literary punters' lips. It will be a huge surprise if she fails to secure the prize."
But Graham Sharpe, William Hill spokesman, was a little more circumspect. Despite seeing a similar skew in betting - with Mantel taking more than 75% of the money - he highlighted the historic "curse of the favourite hitch".
"[This] has seen several strongly fancied contenders like David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Ian McEwen's Atonement fall by the wayside in recent years," he said.
"The last two winners - Aravand Adiga's The White Tiger and Anne Enright's The Gathering were both the complete outsiders, so for bookmakers the Booker has been very profitable for the last decade - and long may that continue."

Shortlist Odds at William Hill
Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall - 10/11
Simon Mawer The Glass Room 7/2
J M Coetzee Summertime - 6/1
Sarah Waters The Little Stranger - 6/1
A S Byatt The Children's Book - 8/1
Adam Foulds The Quickening Maze - 12/1

Shortlist Odds at Ladbrokes
Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall - 8/13
J M Coetzee Summertime - 5/1
Sarah Waters The Little Stranger - The Glass Room 6/1
A S Byatt The Children's Book - 8/1
Adam Foulds The Quickening Maze - 10/1

And here is Nicholas Clee writing on Book Brunch on the subject:

Members of rival camps appear to be resigned to seeing Hilary Mantel, whose latest odds with Ladbrokes are 8/13 (4/5 with William Hill), collect the Man Booker Prize this evening.

They might take heart from the abysmal record of Booker favourites. According to some accounts, Sebastian Barry last year became the 10th consecutive Booker favourite to fail to win the prize - though Peter Carey (True History of the Kelly Gang, 2001) and Yann Martel (Life of Pi, 2002) did head the bookies' lists at various points.

If Mantel were to miss out, she would share the disappointment with illustrious, well-fancied colleagues including Margaret Atwood (Oryx and Crake, 2003), David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas, 2004), and Julian Barnes (Arthur and George, 2005).

And more from Clee blogging on the subject:

The Booker should not apologise for being literary

Published in Booker Prize by Nicholas Clee

I wish popular novelists wouldn't get so het up about the Booker. They seem to believe that their exclusion from the most prestigious literary award is a symptom of the snootiness of the literary establishment. No doubt some people are literary snobs; but most writers and readers accept that there are different genres, that the Booker is for literary fiction, and that's that. (I have written about this before, here.)