Man Booker judge Amanda Foreman explains that until the very last day, it was too close to call who had won this year's prize, which went to Hilary Mantel for Bring Up The Bodies.
Back in December, at the first meeting of the judges for the 2012 Man Booker Prize, the chair Sir
Peter Stothard led the discussion on our criteria for the next 10 months of
deliberation. This is how the process for literary prizes normally works; when
it fails to happen, the judging process can quickly descend into every man (or
woman) for himself. The disagreements become personal, resentments build, and
suddenly it’s no longer about books but about egos.
One of the annual media rituals of the Man Booker Prize is the dredging up of
rows from previous years. There is certainly no shortage of them, from the
judges who have walked out in protest: Malcolm Muggeridge in 1971, Nicholas
Mosley in 1991; or who denounced the winner: Julia Neuberger in 1994, or a
fellow judge: Joanna Lumley in 1985; or who spoke for laughs and caused huge
offence, David Baddiel in 2002; and so on.
The above list shows how easy it is for even the best intentioned to find
themselves embroiled in controversy. It is true to say that the 2012 panel began
its discussions with trepidation. But most emphatically it was not because we
feared joining the ranks of the notorious. Yes, we were aware of the potential
pitfalls. It was Stothard, though, not recent history, who was behind the
nervous energy that filled the meetings. His uncompromising attitude towards
literary excellence felt like a direct challenge to each of us – to have our
analytical credentials on display and finely tuned at all times.
We were absolutely discouraged from beginning any sentence with the words, “I
like” or “I dislike” a certain book. We had to back up our analysis with
references to the text, including paragraphs, quotes and page numbers.
Literature may be about reaching the ineffable, but criticism is about tethering
it back down to earth.
So how did a book make it through the winnowing process? Our aim, as has now
been made clear, was to judge the novels, not the novelists; to consider the
text, not the reputation. There were more than 30 former Man Booker winners and
finalists in the competition. The only difference between them and everyone else
was that their previous history gave them an automatic right to consideration,
whereas the rest had to be nominated by their publisher. All 145 entries were
put through the same process of deliberation; their form and content were
subjected to the same aesthetic critique.
Full story at The Telegraph
Full story at The Telegraph