Man Booker Prize: Howard Jacobson is surprise winner

The Man Booker Prize judges chose writer and broadcaster Howard Jacobson as their surprise winner last night, the oldest author to take the prize in 30 years.
By Anita Singh, Arts Correspondent , The Telegraph
12 Oct 2010

Writer and broadcaster Howard Jacobson was the rank outsider for the £50,000 prize Photo: ANDREW CROWLEY

Jacobson was the rank outsider for the £50,000 prize but his tragi-comic novel, The Finkler Question, triumphed over favourites Tom McCarthy and Emma Donoghue. It is his 11th novel and comes at the age of 68, making him the oldest winner since William Golding in 1980.
It has been a long road to literary glory - a teacher at his Manchester primary school identified him as a future novelist aged just seven, but Jacobson became a lecturer at Wolverhampton Polytechnic and was 40 before he published his first book.

Sir Andrew Motion, chairman of the judges, said: "There is a particular pleasure in seeing somebody who is this good finally getting his just desserts."
The book follows the misadventures of Julian Treslove, a failed BBC producer who is fiercely jealous of his successful old schoolfriend, Sam Finkler, and yearns to be Jewish like him. It is the first comic novel in the 42-year history of the prize, but also a meditation on identity, friendship and loss.

Full Anita Singh report
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson: review

Extract fromMan Booker Prize winner

Daily Mail Report

And Boyd Tonkin writing in The Independent.

Man Booker Prze Winners of the Deacde Photos - Huffington Post

Twice Man Booker Prize Winner Peter Carey Says People Are Getting Dumber

In an upset, 2010 Man Booker Prize goes to 'The Finkler Question' LA Times

Shortlisted authors, winner third from left. Photo from LA Times