68-542: Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with The Sense of an Ending , having been shortlisted three times previously with Flaubert's Parrot , England, England , and Arthur & George . Barnes has also written crime fiction under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh (having married Pat Kavanagh ). In addition to novels, Barnes has published collections of essays and short stories. In 2004, he became
136-443: A charitable foundation run by Sir Michael Moritz and his wife, Harriet Heyman – then announced it would sponsor the award for five years, with the option to renew for another five years. The award title was changed to simply "The Booker Prize". In 2019, despite having been unequivocally warned against doing so, the foundation's jury – under the chair Peter Florence – split the prize, awarding it to two authors, in breach of
204-818: A Commandeur of L' Ordre des Arts et des Lettres . His honours also include the Somerset Maugham Award and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize . He was awarded the 2021 Jerusalem Prize . Barnes was born in Leicester , in the East Midlands of England, on 19 January 1946, although his family moved to the outer suburbs of London six weeks afterwards. Both of his parents were French teachers. He has said that his support for Leicester City Football Club was, aged four or five, "a sentimental way of hanging on" to his home city. At
272-548: A campaign group for assisted dying. He has lived in Tufnell Park , north London, since 1983. Barnes is an agnostic . Barnes married Pat Kavanagh , a literary agent, in 1979. She died on 20 October 2008 of a brain tumour. Barnes wrote about his grief over his wife's death in an essay in his 2013 book, Levels of Life . Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize , formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and
340-448: A concentrated way". During the 1990s, Barnes wrote several additional novels and works of journalism. In 1991, he published Talking It Over , about a contemporary love triangle, in which the three characters take turns to talk to the reader, reflecting on common events. This was followed by a sequel published in 2000 called Love, etc , which revisited the characters ten years on. Barnes's novel The Porcupine (1992) again deals with
408-432: A darker narrative, a story of revenge by a jealous historian who becomes obsessed with his second wife's past. Barnes's breakthrough novel Flaubert's Parrot (1984) departed from the traditional linear structure of his previous novels and featured a fragmentary biographical-style story of an elderly doctor, Geoffrey Braithwaite, who focuses obsessively on the life of Gustave Flaubert . About Flaubert, Barnes has said, "he's
476-402: A fictional account of a true crime that was investigated by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , launched Barnes's career into the more popular mainstream. It was the first of his novels to be featured on The New York Times bestsellers list for Hardback Fiction. Barnes's 11th novel, The Sense of an Ending , published by Jonathan Cape , was released on 4 August 2011. In October of that year, the book
544-527: A historical theme as it depicts the trial of Stoyo Petkanov, the former leader of a collapsed Communist country in Eastern Europe, as he stands trial for crimes against his country. England, England (1998) is a humorous novel that explores the idea of national identity as the entrepreneur Sir Jack Pitman creates a theme park on the Isle of Wight that resembles some of the tourist spots of England. Barnes
612-465: A judge; in 2001, she called the prize "a pile of crooked nonsense" with the winner determined by "who knows who, who's sleeping with who, who's selling drugs to who, who's married to who, whose turn it is". In 1997, the decision to award Arundhati Roy 's The God of Small Things proved controversial. Carmen Callil , chair of the previous year's Booker judges, called it an "execrable" book and said on television that it should not even have been on
680-637: A jury badly split over Ian McEwan 's novel On Chesil Beach . The following year it was India's turn again, with Aravind Adiga narrowly defeating Enright's fellow Irishman Sebastian Barry . Historically, the winner of the Booker Prize had been required to be a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations , the Republic of Ireland, or Zimbabwe. It was announced on 18 September 2013 that future Booker Prize awards would consider authors from anywhere in
748-535: A letter to The Guardian requesting that the prize be given to him so that he could use the money to buy every copy of the longlisted books in Ireland and donate them to libraries, "thus ensuring that the books not only are bought but also read – surely a unique occurrence". Judging for the 1983 award produced a draw between J. M. Coetzee 's Life & Times of Michael K and Salman Rushdie 's Shame , leaving chair of judges Fay Weldon to choose between
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#1732775721949816-414: A number of titles based on their longlisting history (previously they could submit two). Non-longlisted publishers can submit one title, publishers with one or two longlisted books in the previous five years can submit two, publishers with three or four longlisted books are allowed three submissions, and publishers with five or more longlisted books can have four submissions. In addition, previous winners of
884-739: A permanent home for the archives from 1968 to present at Oxford Brookes University Library. The Archive, which encompasses the administrative history of the Prize from 1968 to date, collects together a diverse range of material, including correspondence, publicity material, copies of both the Longlists and the Shortlists, minutes of meetings, photographs and material relating to the awards dinner (letters of invitation, guest lists, seating plans). Embargoes of ten or twenty years apply to certain categories of material; examples include all material relating to
952-651: A reviewer and literary editor for the New Statesman and the New Review . During his time at the New Statesman , Barnes suffered from debilitating shyness, about which he has said: "When there were weekly meetings I would be paralysed into silence, and was thought of as the mute member of staff." From 1979 to 1986, he worked as a television critic, first for the New Statesman and then for The Observer . His first novel, Metroland , published in 1980,
1020-620: A rule established in 1993. Florence justified the decision, saying: "We came down to a discussion with the director of the Booker Prize about the rules. And we were told quite firmly that the rules state that you can only have one winner ... and as we have managed the jury all the way through on the principle of consensus, our consensus was that it was our decision to flout the rules and divide this year's prize to celebrate two winners." The two were British writer Bernardine Evaristo for her novel Girl, Woman, Other and Canadian writer Margaret Atwood for The Testaments . Evaristo's win marked
1088-446: A small number of literary insiders is controversial for many. The Guardian introduced the "Not the Booker Prize" voted for by readers partly as a reaction to this. Author Amit Chaudhuri wrote: "The idea that a 'book of the year' can be assessed annually by a bunch of people – judges who have to read almost a book a day – is absurd, as is the idea that this is any way of honouring a writer." The author Julian Barnes once dismissed
1156-489: Is a keen Francophile , and his 1996 book, Cross Channel , is a collection of 10 stories charting Britain's relationship with France. He also returned to the topic of France in Something to Declare , a collection of essays on French subjects. In 2003, Barnes undertook a rare acting role as the voice of Georges Simenon in a BBC Radio 4 series of adaptations of Inspector Maigret stories. Arthur & George (2005),
1224-437: Is a novel by Julian Barnes writing under the pseudonym of Dan Kavanagh. Barnes published the novel the year after he married the literary agent Pat Kavanagh , to whom he dedicated the book. It is the first of a four-novel series featuring the title character Duffy, a bisexual private detective and ex-policeman with a 'phobia of ticking watches and a penchant for Tupperware '. Originally published by Jonathan Cape in 1980, it
1292-529: Is given in a callously brutal and tasteless rhetoric" This article about a novel of the 1980s with a lesbian , gay , bisexual , transgender , or queer theme is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See guidelines for writing about novels . Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page . This article about a crime novel of the 1980s is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See guidelines for writing about novels . Further suggestions might be found on
1360-504: Is made, and the world is changed . . . I was thirty-two when we met, sixty-two when she died. The heart of my life; the life of my heart." In The Guardian , Blake Morrison said of the third section: "Its resonance comes from all it doesn't say, as well as what it does; from the depth of love we infer from the desert of grief." In 2013, Barnes took on the British government over its "mass closure of public libraries", Britain's "slip down
1428-523: Is notable because he represents one of Britain's first bisexual male detectives. Barnes has said the use of a pseudonym is "liberating in that you could indulge any fantasies of violence you might have". While Metroland , also published in 1980, took Barnes eight years to write, Duffy and the rest of the Kavanagh novels typically took less than two weeks each to put to paper—an experiment to test "what it would be like writing as fast as I possibly could in
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#17327757219491496-537: Is the story of Christopher, a young man from the London suburbs who travels to Paris , France, as a student, finally returning to London. The novel deals with themes of idealism and sexual fidelity, and has the three-part structure that is a common recurrence in Barnes's work. After reading the novel, Barnes's mother complained about the book's "bombardment" of filth. His second novel, Before She Met Me (1982), features
1564-719: The Commonwealth were also considered. In 2008, the winner for 1948 was Alan Paton 's Cry, the Beloved Country , beating Norman Mailer 's The Naked and the Dead , Graham Greene 's The Heart of the Matter and Evelyn Waugh 's The Loved One . In 2015, the winner for 1915 was Ford Madox Ford 's The Good Soldier , beating The Thirty-Nine Steps ( John Buchan ), Of Human Bondage ( W. Somerset Maugham ), Psmith, Journalist ( P. G. Wodehouse ) and The Voyage Out ( Virginia Woolf ). Duffy (novel) Duffy
1632-626: The Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, which was published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. The winner of the Booker Prize receives £ 50,000, as well as international publicity that usually leads to a significant sales boost. When the prize was created, only novels written by Commonwealth , Irish, and South African (and later Zimbabwean) citizens were eligible to receive
1700-545: The 50th anniversary, the Golden Man Booker was awarded. One book from each decade was selected by a panel of judges: Naipaul's In a Free State (the 1971 winner), Lively's Moon Tiger (1987), Ondaatje's The English Patient (1992), Mantel's Wolf Hall (2009) and Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo (2017). The winner, by popular vote, was The English Patient . Since 2014, each publisher's imprint may submit
1768-534: The Booker was awarded in 2008 to celebrate the prize's 40th anniversary. A shortlist of six winners was chosen — Rushdie's Midnight's Children , Coetzee' Disgrace , Carey's Oscar and Lucinda , Gordimer's The Conservationist , Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur , and Barker's The Ghost Road — and the decision was left to a public vote; the winner was again Midnight's Children . In 2018, to celebrate
1836-480: The Booker Prize is greeted with anticipation and fanfare around the world. Literary critics have noted that it is a mark of distinction for authors to be selected for inclusion in the shortlist or to be nominated for the "longlist". A sister prize, the International Booker Prize , is awarded for a work of fiction translated into English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. Unlike
1904-459: The Booker Prize was originally £5,000. It doubled in 1978 to £10,000 and was subsequently raised to £50,000 in 2002 under the sponsorship of the Man Group, making it one of the world's richest literary prizes . Each of the shortlisted authors receives £2,500 and a specially bound edition of their book. The original Booker Prize trophy was designed by the artist Jan Pieńkowski and the design
1972-457: The Booker Prize, for The Elected Member . The rules of the Booker changed in 1971; previously, it had been given retrospectively, to books published in the year prior to each award. In 1971, eligibility was changed to make the year of a novel's publication the same as the year of the award, which was made in November; in effect, this meant that books published in 1970 were not considered for
2040-560: The Booker Prize, short story collections are eligible for the International Booker Prize. The £50,000 prize money is split evenly between the author and translator of the winning novel. The prize was established as the "Booker Prize for Fiction" after the company Booker, McConnell Ltd began sponsoring the event in 1969; it became commonly known as the "Booker Prize" or the "Booker". Jock Campbell , Charles Tyrrell and Tom Maschler were instrumental in establishing
2108-416: The Booker Prize. This was rectified in 2010 by the awarding of the " Lost Man Booker Prize " to J. G. Farrell 's Troubles . In 1993, a special Booker of Bookers prize was awarded to mark the prize's 25th anniversary. Three previous judges of the award, Malcolm Bradbury , David Holloway and W. L. Webb, met and chose Salman Rushdie 's Midnight's Children , the 1981 winner, as "the best novel out of all
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2176-657: The Booker in either year. Forty years later, the Booker Prize Foundation announced in January 2010 the creation of a special award called the " Lost Man Booker Prize ", with the winner chosen from a longlist of 22 novels published in 1970. The prize was won by J. G. Farrell for Troubles , though the author had died in 1979. In 1972, winning writer John Berger , known for his Marxist worldview, protested during his acceptance speech against Booker McConnell. He blamed Booker's 130 years of sugar production in
2244-551: The Caribbean for the region's modern poverty. Berger donated half of his £5,000 prize to the British Black Panther movement , because it had a socialist and revolutionary perspective in agreement with his own. In 1980, Anthony Burgess , writer of Earthly Powers , refused to attend the ceremony unless it was confirmed to him in advance whether he had won. His was one of two books considered likely to win,
2312-688: The International Booker Prize since the Man Group ended its association with the prizes in 2019. A Russian version of the Booker Prize was created in 1992 called the Booker-Open Russia Literary Prize , also known as the Russian Booker Prize. In 2007, Man Group plc established the Man Asian Literary Prize , an annual literary award given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in
2380-489: The World in 10½ Chapters , which is also a non-linear novel, and uses a variety of writing styles to call into question the perceived notions of human history and knowledge itself. During the 1980s, Barnes wrote four crime novels under the name "Dan Kavanagh" (Barnes had recently married the literary agent Pat Kavanagh ). The novels centred around the main character Duffy, a former police detective turned security advisor. Duffy
2448-581: The age of 10, Barnes was told by his mother that he had "too much imagination". In 1956, the family moved to Northwood , Middlesex , the "Metroland" of his first novel. He was educated at the City of London School from 1957 to 1964. He then went on to Magdalen College, Oxford , where he studied modern languages. After graduation, he worked for three years as a lexicographer for the Oxford English Dictionary supplement. He then worked as
2516-429: The appointed jury to make the award to just a single author/book. The choice of James Kelman 's book How Late It Was, How Late as 1994 Booker Prize winner proved to be one of the most controversial in the award's history. Rabbi Julia Neuberger , one of the judges, declared it "a disgrace" and left the event, later deeming the book to be "crap"; WHSmith 's marketing manager called the award "an embarrassment to
2584-413: The books that have been submitted. (In 2023, the judges read 163 books over seven months. ) After doing so, they select a longlist of 12 or 13 titles (the "Booker Dozen"), before each reading those books for a second time. They then select a shortlist of six titles, and read the six books a third time before selecting a winner. The Booker judging process and the very concept of a "best book" being chosen by
2652-458: The chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, chooses the judges in consultation with an advisory committee made up of senior figures from the UK publishing industry. On rare occasions a judge may be selected a second time. Judges are selected from amongst leading literary critics, writers, academics and leading public figures. Unlike some other literary prizes, each judge is expected to read all of
2720-735: The first time the Booker had been awarded to a black woman, while Atwood's win, at 79, made her the oldest winner. Atwood had also previously won the prize in 2000. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual award ceremony was replaced with a livestream from the Roundhouse in London, without the shortlisted authors in attendance. The winner was Douglas Stuart for his debut novel Shuggie Bain , which had been rejected by more than 30 publishers. 2021's small-scale ceremony, once again impacted by COVID-19, saw South African writer Damon Galgut , who had been shortlisted in 2003 and 2010, win
2788-497: The following year. In 2018, publishers sought to reverse the change, arguing that the inclusion of American writers would lead to homogenisation, reducing diversity and opportunities everywhere, including in America, to learn about "great books that haven't already been widely heralded". Man Group announced in early 2019 that the year's prize would be the last of eighteen under their sponsorship. A new sponsor, Crankstart –
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2856-399: The goose that lays your golden eggs." In 1988, Peter Carey won the first of his two Booker Prizes for Oscar and Lucinda (which would later be shortlisted for The Best of the Booker ). In 1992, the jury split the prize between Michael Ondaatje 's The English Patient and Barry Unsworth 's Sacred Hunger . This prompted the foundation to draw up a rule that made it mandatory for
2924-618: The judging process and the Longlist prior to 2002. Between 2005 and 2008, the Booker Prize alternated between writers from Ireland and India. "Outsider" John Banville began this trend in 2005 when his novel The Sea was selected as a surprise winner: Boyd Tonkin , literary editor of The Independent , famously condemned it as "possibly the most perverse decision in the history of the award" and rival novelist Tibor Fischer poured scorn on Banville's victory. Kiran Desai of India won in 2006. Anne Enright 's 2007 victory came about due to
2992-470: The number of nominees was capped at 12 or 13 each year. In 2001, Peter Carey won his second Booker Prize for True History of the Kelly Gang , a work now ranked by The Guardian as one of the 100 greatest novels written in English. Carey is one of only four writers to have won the Booker Prize twice, the others being J.M. Coetzee , Hilary Mantel , and Margaret Atwood . The Booker Prize created
3060-469: The other being Rites of Passage by William Golding . The judges decided only 30 minutes before the ceremony, giving the prize to Golding. Both novels had been seen as favourites to win leading up to the prize, and the dramatic "literary battle" between two senior writers made front-page news. Alice Munro 's The Beggar Maid was shortlisted in 1980, and remains the only short-story collection to be shortlisted. In 1981, nominee John Banville wrote
3128-464: The police and to his own dismissal from their ranks four years earlier after being set-up for underage homosexual sex. John Sutherland in the London Review of Books writes, "Duffy’s principal attraction is a kind of voyeurism on voyeurism, as the hero investigates the square mile’s ‘saunas’, peepshows and sex shops. The report which the novel offers as to what goes on in these establishments
3196-462: The previous calendar year. For many years, as part of The Times 's Literature Festival in Cheltenham , a Booker event was held on the last Saturday of the festival. Four guest speakers/judges debated a shortlist of four books from a given year from before the introduction of the Booker Prize, and a winner was chosen. Unlike the real Booker Prize (1969 through 2014), writers from outside
3264-506: The prize are automatically considered if they enter new titles. Books may also be called in: publishers can make written representations to the judges to consider titles in addition to those already entered. In the 21st century the average number of books considered by the judges has been approximately 130. A separate prize for which any living writer in the world may qualify, the Man Booker International Prize ,
3332-431: The prize as "posh bingo" for the apparently arbitrary way winners are selected. On winning the prize in 2011 he joked that he had revised his opinion, telling reporters that he had realised "the judges are the wisest heads in literary Christendom". For many years, the winner was announced at a formal, black-tie dinner in London's Guildhall in early October. However, in 2020, with COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in place,
3400-497: The prize for The Promise . 2022 saw a reimagined winner ceremony at the Roundhouse, hosted by comedian Sophie Duker and featuring a keynote speech by singer Dua Lipa . The prize was won by Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka for his second novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida . In 2023, for the first time, the shortlist featured three writers named Paul ( Paul Lynch , Paul Murray and Paul Harding ). The prize
3468-415: The prize. When administration of the prize was transferred to the Booker Prize Foundation in 2002, the title sponsor became the investment company Man Group , which opted to retain "Booker" as part of the official title of the prize. The foundation is an independent registered charity funded by the entire profits of Booker Prize Trading Ltd, of which it is the sole shareholder. The prize money awarded with
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#17327757219493536-451: The prize. In fact, he has only been shortlisted once and that was for Time's Arrow , which was not one of his strongest books. That really is suspicious. He pissed people off with Dead Babies and that gets lodged in the culture. There is also the feeling that he has always looked towards America. The selection process for the winner of the prize commences with the appointment of a panel of five judges, which changes each year. Gaby Wood,
3604-514: The prize; in 2014, eligibility was widened to any English-language novel—a change that proved controversial. A five-person panel consisting of authors, publishers and journalists, as well as politicians, actors, artists and musicians, is appointed by the Booker Prize Foundation each year to choose the winning book. As of 2024, the chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation is Gaby Wood . A high-profile literary award in British culture ,
3672-463: The shortlist. Booker Prize chairman Martyn Goff said Roy won because nobody objected, following the rejection by the judges of Bernard MacLaverty 's shortlisted book due to their dismissal of him as "a wonderful short-story writer and that Grace Notes was three short stories strung together". Before 2001, each year's longlist of nominees was not publicly revealed. From 2001, the longlisted novels started to be published each year, and in 2007
3740-543: The two. According to Stephen Moss in The Guardian , "Her arm was bent and she chose Rushdie", only to change her mind as the result was being phoned through. At the award ceremony, Fay Weldon used her speech to attack the assembled publishers, accusing them of exploiting and undervaluing authors. "I will ask you if in your dealings with authors you are really being fair, and honourable, and right? Or merely getting away with what you can? If you are not careful, you will kill
3808-487: The whole book trade"; Waterstones in Glasgow sold a mere 13 copies of Kelman's book the following week. In 1994, The Guardian ' s literary editor Richard Gott , citing the lack of objective criteria and the exclusion of American authors, described the prize as "a significant and dangerous iceberg in the sea of British culture that serves as a symbol of its current malaise". In 1996, A. L. Kennedy served as
3876-473: The winner ceremony was broadcast in November from the Roundhouse , in partnership with the BBC . The ceremony returned to the Roundhouse for a more casual in-person ceremony in 2022, before moving to Old Billingsgate in London in 2023. In 1971, the nature of the prize was changed so that it was awarded to novels published in that year instead of in the previous year; therefore, no novel published in 1970 could win
3944-474: The winners". In 2006, the Man Booker Prize set up a "Best of Beryl" prize, for the author Beryl Bainbridge , who had been nominated five times and yet failed to win once. The prize is said to count as a Booker Prize. The nominees were An Awfully Big Adventure , Every Man for Himself , The Bottle Factory Outing , The Dressmaker and Master Georgie , which won. Similarly, The Best of
4012-527: The work gives a history of early ballooning and aerial photography , describing the work of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon . The second part is a short story about Fred Burnaby and the French actor Sarah Bernhardt , both also balloonists . The third part is an essay discussing Barnes's grief over the death of his wife, Pat Kavanagh (although she is not named): "You put together two people who have not been put together before . . . Sometimes it works, and something new
4080-477: The world league table for literacy" and its "ideological worship of the market – as quasi-religious as nature-worship – and an ever-widening gap between rich and poor". Barnes's brother, Jonathan Barnes , is a philosopher specialising in ancient philosophy . Julian Barnes is a patron of the human rights organisation Freedom from Torture , for which he has sponsored several fundraising events, and Dignity in Dying ,
4148-575: The world, so long as their work was in English and published in the UK. This change proved controversial in literary circles. Former winner A. S. Byatt and former judge John Mullan said the prize risked diluting its identity, whereas former judge A. L. Kennedy welcomed the change. Following this expansion, the first winner not from the Commonwealth, Ireland, or Zimbabwe was American Paul Beatty in 2016. Another American, George Saunders , won
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#17327757219494216-615: The writer whose words I most carefully tend to weigh, who I think has spoken the most truth about writing." Flaubert's Parrot was published to great acclaim, especially in France, and it helped establish Barnes as a serious literary figure when the novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize . Staring at the Sun followed in 1986, another ambitious novel about a woman growing to maturity in post-war England and dealing with issues of love, truth and mortality. In 1989, Barnes published A History of
4284-468: Was a judge for the 1999 prize, was reported as saying in 2001: There is a well-established London literary community. Rushdie doesn't get shortlisted now because he has attacked that community. That is not a good game plan if you want to win the Booker. Norman Mailer has found the same thing in the US – you have to "be a citizen" if you want to win prizes. The real scandal is that [Martin] Amis has never won
4352-609: Was awarded the Man Booker Prize . The judges took 31 minutes to decide the winner and head judge, Stella Rimington , said that The Sense of an Ending was a "beautifully written book" and the panel thought it "spoke to humankind in the 21st Century." The Sense of an Ending also won the Europese Literatuurprijs and was on the New York Times Bestseller list for several weeks. In 2013, Barnes published Levels of Life . The first section of
4420-428: Was inaugurated in 2005. Until 2015, it was given every two years to a living author of any nationality for a body of work published in English or generally available in English translation. In 2016, the award was significantly reconfigured, and is now given annually to a single book in English translation , with a £50,000 prize for the winning title, shared equally between author and translator. The award has been known as
4488-467: Was republished by Orion books in 2014. In the quiet Surrey village of West Byfleet two masked men break into Brian McKechnie's house, cut his wife and spit roast his cat. This leads to blackmail and McKechnie goes to the local police but finds them strangely uninterested and so he hires Duffy to investigate. The investigator uses his contacts in the seedy Soho underworld to identify those responsible and finds they have links to his ex-colleagues in
4556-404: Was revived for the 2023 prize. The first winner of the Booker Prize was P. H. Newby in 1969 for his novel Something to Answer For . W. L. Webb, The Guardian ' s Literary Editor, was chair of the inaugural set of judges, which included Rebecca West , Stephen Spender , Frank Kermode and David Farrer. In 1970, the prize's second year, Bernice Rubens became the first woman to win
4624-479: Was won by Irish writer Paul Lynch for his novel Prophet Song . In the media, reaction was mixed. In The Guardian , Justine Jordan wrote that "This is a novel written to jolt the reader awake to truths we mostly cannot bear to admit", while in The Telegraph , Cal Revely-Calder wrote that Prophet Song is "political fiction at its laziest" and "the weak link in a strong shortlist". John Sutherland , who
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