Before Julian Barnes won the Man Booker Prize in 2011, he had famously described the prize as ‘posh bingo’. I guess you can’t really blame him when he had been shortlisted three times before The Sense of an Ending scooped the award - and then went on to sell over 300,000 copies in hardback in the UK alone.
Describe the Man Booker however you will, one thing is for sure. It matters. It matters to the writer who wins it and to the other authors who are highlighted through the longlisting and shortlisting. It matters to the publishers who are behind the books, to the booksellers, to the media – and to the reading public, many of whom use the judges’ lists as the basis of their own annual reading lists. MORE
Describe the Man Booker however you will, one thing is for sure. It matters. It matters to the writer who wins it and to the other authors who are highlighted through the longlisting and shortlisting. It matters to the publishers who are behind the books, to the booksellers, to the media – and to the reading public, many of whom use the judges’ lists as the basis of their own annual reading lists. MORE
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