The Man Booker Prize longlist has been published (26th July) and I’ve begun the process of trying to forecast who’ll be the lucky winner this year. The prize is one of the oldest literary prizes in existence, and certainly one of the most coverted amongst writers – but it’s public reputation seems to have lagged a bit behind. I conducted a brief street vox pop – ok, so I asked the woman in front of me in supermarketqueue if she’d heard of it as we’d started a conversation about a certain ‘warm’ celebrity gossip magazine headline next to the till – and though she had heard of it, she denied having read any of the shortlist with the same vehemence she might deny taking drugs.
This is a strange response, but one I’ve come across before. This lady didn’t think ‘that kind of book’ was for her, yet many people read similar books which just don’t happen to make the shortlist. The Man Booker Prize was established to promote the very best of contemporary fiction to the widest possible audience. Certainly the winners and the authors gain a huge amount from it. ‘The Life of Pi’ by Yann Martel sold 1.4 million copies within 6 months of winning.
The prize gets people talking about literature and what readers want and demand from fiction – and it’s a great promoter of reading. Library lends of Man Booker Prize winners increase by more than three times the average lending levels – and the Man Booker website offers reader groups some great promotions and ideas to get you going, as well as inviting you to comment and take part in discussions with other readers.
So if you are under the impression that the Man Booker Prize isn’t something relevant to you – why not give it a go this year? Go to their website at www.themanbookerprize.com and try to guess who’ll win. The judging panel read all 120 books entered – but you can start with just the one. Whatever else happens you’ll enjoy a fantastic read and you might join the mad crowd of us who decide they will read the entire shortlist before the next prize comes around. Enjoy!
