Tomorrow morning will find me heading to Auckland International Airport to fly out to London where next Tuesday, 15 October I will be attending the black tie Awards Dinner at the Guildhall.
It is a hugely expensive brief visit making a hefty dent in my retirement funds but it is so rare for a New Zealand author to be short-listed, Eleanor Catton is only the third, that I thought as "the first word on the NZ book scene" I should be there.
I will be posting on the blog Saturday am before heading to the airport but there will then be something of a break until I get to London where I will be blogging as normal,( I hope),although I will be in a different time zone of course. I also plan to tweet the result from the Guildhall.The announcement is scheduled for 9.45pm London time.
Fingers crossed for Eleanor Catton and her remarkable novel, The Luminaries (VUP). But regardless of the outcome even to get this far is a truly remarkable achievement. There were more than 150 nominations followed by a long-list of 13 and short-list of six.
Other short-listed NZ writers were Keri Hulme (left) in 1985 for The Bone People, (the winner), and Lloyd Jones in 2007 for Mister Pip.The shortlisted authors all win £2,500 and a specially bound edition of their book, while the winner of the Man Booker Prize receives a further £50,000.
And of course huge ongoing sales. Keri Hulme's The Bone People has never been out of print since winning in 1985 and has sold several million copies.
The judging panel comprises chair Robert Macfarlane, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Natalie Haynes, Martha Kearney and Stuart Kelly.
3 comments:
In Ms Catton's 'The Luminaries' she has sixteen ounces in a pound of gold. There are only twelve ounces in a pound of gold; it's measured in Troy weight. She might like to correct it in the next edition.
Don Donovan
In Ms Catton's 'The Luminaries' she has sixteen ounces in a pound of gold. There are only twelve ounces in a pound of gold; it's measured in Troy weight. She might like to correct it in the next edition.
Don Donovan
Kudos to you Graham.
Looking forward to the ceremony tweets. And fingers crossed for a win.
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