Hollinghurst favourite to win Man Booker

26.07.11 | Graeme Neill - The Bookseller

William Hill has installed former Man Booker winner Alan Hollinghurst as the 5/1 favourite to clinch the prize for the second time for his novel The Stranger's Child (Picador).

The longlist was announced this afternoon and the bookmaker has moved quickly to lay out its odds. Julian Barnes is 6/1 second favourite for The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape).
Three Canadians are on the longlist—Alison Pick, Patrick deWitt and Esi Edugyan—and William Hill is offering odds of 4/1 that one of them walks away with the £50,000 prize when it is revealed on 18th October.
Wiliam Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe said: "The Man Booker is easily the most popular literary award with punters and all indications suggest that a significant six-figure sum will be riding on the outcome.
“Alan Hollinghurst has had rave reviews for his latest book which is a worthy favourite in what, nonetheless, looks an open year. For the first time a book with a horse racing theme is in the running and we would be delighted to see the book upset the favourite—D J Taylor has already outdone racing’s bestselling Dick Francis by making it to the Man Booker shortlist.”

The odds in full are:
5/1 Alan Hollinghurst - The Stranger’s Child (Picador - Pan Macmillan)
6/1 Julian Barnes - The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape - Random House)
8/1 Carol Birch - Jamrach’s Menagerie (Canongate Books)
8/1 D.J. Taylor - Derby Day (Chatto & Windus - Random House)
10/1 Sebastian Barry - On Canaan’s Side (Faber)
10/1 Stephen Kelman - Pigeon English (Bloomsbury)
12/1 Yvvette Edwards - A Cupboard Full of Coats (Oneworld)
12/1 Alison Pick - Far to Go (Headline Review)
14/1 Esi Edugyan - Half Blood Blues (Serpent’s Tail - Profile)
14/1 Patrick McGuinness - The Last Hundred Days (Seren Books)
16/1 Patrick deWitt - The Sisters Brothers (Granta)
16/1 A.D. Miller - Snowdrops (Atlantic)
18/1 Jane Rogers - The Testament of Jessie Lamb (Sandstone Press)