Hot favourite wins 2009 Man Booker Prize

On the evening of Tuesday October 6th the great and the good of British publishing packed into London’s historic Guildhall to await the decision of the 2009 Man Booker Prize judges.

As the panel, chaired by BBC broadcaster James Naughtie, deliberated for a final three hours in a private room, authors and their agents, editors and publishers enjoyed a three-course dinner. The world of publishing both internationally and in Britain has undergone a difficult twelve months, so this was a rare opportunity to celebrate.

London’s Guildhall building has a centuries long history, so it was appropriate that the prize ultimately went to Hilary Mantel for her massive account of the Machiavellian Thomas Cromwell’s ascent to power in the court of Henry VIII. Despite garnering lavish critical praise, Wolf Hall is an unusual Booker Prize winner in that it is a classic historical novel of the old school, a well-written page-turner displaying a wealth of meticulous research, but lacking the characteristic quirkiness of previous winners such as Yann Martel’s Life of Pi and Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger.

The decision was not unanimous – insiders revealed that Mantel was declared the eventual winner in a three-two split – although all judges stated that they were happy with the outcome.

Mantel, who is currently working on a sequel to Wolf Hall, said, “I hesitated for such a long time before beginning to write this book, actually for about 20 years.” After two decades of deliberation and five years of painstaking research Mantel’s literary gamble has clearly paid off, as chairman James Naughtie revealed, “Our decision was based on the sheer bigness of the book, the boldness of its narrative and scene-setting, the gleam that there is in its detail.”

After being presented with her trophy and cheque for £50,000 Mantel clearly only had work on her mind: “What I have got at the moment is a huge box of notes,” she admitted of the next in her Tudor series, which will be entitled The Mirror And The Light.

For more information about the Man Booker Prize visit:

www.realitysense.com/man-booker-shortlist-reveals-few-surprises/
www.realitysense.com/exciting-2009-man-booker-prize/
www.themanbookerprize.com

New post on at Thursday, 8 October, 2009, 6:44 am and is archived in Culture, Lifestyle. Subscribe to answers with RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.