Lost Man Booker Prize winner announced today

Best novel of 1970 to be announced

19 May 2010

The winner of the Lost Man Booker Prize will be announced tonight (19 May 2010) via the Man Booker Prize website.

There has been a fantastic response to the Lost Man Booker Prize - a one-off prize to honour the books published in 1970 that were not eligible for consideration for the Booker Prize.

The shortlist was selected by a panel of three judges, all of whom were born in or around 1970. They are journalist and critic, Rachel Cooke, ITN newsreader, Katie Derham and poet and novelist, Tobias Hill. They chose the six books from an original longlist of 21 eligible titles which are still in print and generally available today.

The shortlist includes The Birds on the Trees by Nina Bawden (Virago); Troubles by J G Farrell, The Bay of Noon by Shirley Hazzard (Virago); Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault (Arrow); The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark (Penguin); The Vivisector by Patrick White (Vintage).

The Times launched its own Culture Clinic debate, hosted by literary editor Erica Wagner, to allow readers to discuss who they thought should win the prize.

The Guardian carried a four-page feature on the shortlisted titles while the Guardian book bloggers were busy commenting on the prize. 

BBC arts correspondent Will Gompertz gave an enthusiastic report from the shortlist announcement at the Oxford Literary Festival and Rachel Cooke, one of the judges for the Lost Man Booker Prize, wrote about the judging process for The Observer. 

With two Australian novelists on the shortlist, the Lost Man Booker Prize has also been covered extensively by the Australia media including The Australian and The Age. (links)

Readers all over the world will look forward to hearing who the winner is tonight at 7.30pm (GMT). 

The Man Booker Prize Fiction at its finest