Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Random thoughts from The Bookman about the Man Booker Prize Gala Dinner last evening in London

Th Guildhall is an amazing building  It has been used as a town hall for several hundred years, and is still the ceremonial and administrative centre of the City of London .It is is the only stone building not belonging to the Church to have survived the Great Fire of London in 1666.

The dinner was most enjoyable and beautifully presented.- Pea and MInt Tortelloni,  Daube of Beef, and Pear and Chocolate Teardrop.
And the white wine was from New Zealand - Waipapa Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2012

There were a number of previous Man Booker winners present - I noticed V.S.Naipaul, Kazuo Ishiguro, A.S.Byatt, Ben Okri, and Anne Enright . Other authors I observed included Rick Gekoski, P.D.James, Paula Morris, and Rose Tremain. It was of course a Who's Who of the British Literary world and there were many authors present whom I didn't see along with publishers, literary crtics, literary agents etc.

The address from The Duchess of Cornwall and the chair of the judges,Robert Macfarlane  were impressive but for me the star of the show was Eleanor Catton. Her thoughtful and gracious acceptance speech and then her answering of questions at the media conference afterwards were simply stunning - elegant, humble, articulate, generous, thoughtful are some descriptions that come to mind.

It was impossible to get a cab after the event so I ended up getting a bus to Liverpool St Station and then catching a cab from there back to Putney.

I slept soundly for four hours - 1.00am - 5.00am local time and then suddenly I was wide awake and excited all over again! 

What a wonderful night, stunning outcome, I am so glad I flew over especially for the event.

More later no doubt. I will be off shortly to the local newsagent to buy all the morning papers.

Bravo Eleanor, you make us very proud, and we are delighted for you. Your life will never be the same again I suspect !

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Unless she is without other support groups, her life will be very much the same - just wealthier!