The secrets of the Booker Prize
From our UK edition
How do you win the Booker Prize? I have no idea. Get in touch if you do. I’ve been shortlisted and longlisted and served as a Booker judge, and while there are certain perennial features that would tempt you to make a wager on outcomes, there’s enough random wildness to make it interesting. This year’s Booker longlist of 13 titles was described by the chair Mary Beard last week as ‘something for everyone’. Maybe those with a fetish for lesbian boxing dramas set in 1920s San Francisco will feel let down, but it is fair to say this year’s longlist covers a lot of ground. The announcement of the longlist always launches a thousand whines because even if you can manage something for everyone, something isn’t enough for most observers. Too little of this, too much of that.
