Book Prize fights

01.08.14 | Ion Trewin - The Bookseller

Every year I am asked what the Man Booker controversy is going to be. The Bookseller, in calling on me to write about this year’s, has already identified five – and we’ve only reached the longlist stage - non–availability of some titles, the lack of women on the list, not enough Commonwealth writers, notable omissions, unusual inclusions.

One of the notable strengths of the Man Booker is in being a contemporaneous prize. It was one of the intentions of the founding fathers in 1969 that the prize would identify the very best in fiction that was freshly published, newly reviewed and on sale in the nation’s bookshops.

But that does not always make it easy. The Man Booker publishing year is October 1st to September 30th. Ever since we first published the official longlist in 2002 (it had previously been judiciously leaked by Martyn Goff, my predecessor) there have been late published titles, although rarely more than one or two a year. By some tweaking of schedules, publication dates have been brought forward to take advantage of the benefits of being longlisted. But this year’s fiction publishing season has seen a wealth of late published literary fiction: not all of it made the longlist, but five titles did.

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