The Man Booker Prize
What is the Man Booker Prize
The Booker prize was first given in 1968 and aims to reward the best novel of the year by a citizen of the British Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.
It is widely seen as the most prestigious (and most highbrow) book award in UK fiction, although Ireland, Australia and India have all been well represented over the years.
The prize’s name is a sponsorship success story: when it started it was called the Booker-McConnell prize after its sponsors, but soon was being referred to solely as the Booker. When the Man Group took over the sponsorship in 2002 they kept the ‘Booker’ part of the name, such was its resonance around the literary world.
What do you get for winning the Booker Prize?
The winner of the Booker prize currently gets £50,000 in prize money, but can expect far more from the corresponding boost in their sales. Anne Enright sold 500,000 copies in the UK, US and Ireland after she won the Booker; before then she’d never sold 10,000 books in her life.
Inflation may have affected the monetary value of the prize. A S Byatt, on winning the Booker Prize in 1990, said she would spend the winnings on buying a swimming pool in Provence. On the other hand, last year’s winner said she might get a new kitchen.
Who won it last year?
Irish author Anne Enright won the 2007 Man Booker Prize for her novel The Gathering, which had been described as “depressingly bleak” by reviewers.
When do the judges announce the shortlist?
A longlist is announced at the start of August, with a shortlist following in early September. The winner is announced at a televised award ceremony in October.
More information and a full list of winners can be found on Wikipedia’s Booker Prize entry.
Read more on the official Man Booker Prize website.
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