More books than ever before
Ion Trewin on this year’s Man Booker - promising to be another vintage year
With more publishers entering books than ever before the number of entries for this year's Man Booker Prize is up from 114 last year to 132. Unlike many other prizes where a weeding out takes place we ask our judges to read every submission. And they do.
At the beginning of June the judges - James Naughtie (in the chair), Lucasta Miller, Sue Perkins, John Mullan and Michael Prodger - had a progress meeting over supper where one of their tasks was to decide on ‘the call-ins'. To those unfamiliar with the Man Booker rules a publisher may enter two novels (in addition to previous winners and those shortlisted in the past five years). We also ask publishers' editors to recommend to our judges up to five other titles from their lists. This year the judges had sixty-six call-in letters, from which the Man Booker rules state that they must select a minimum of eight and a maximum of a dozen novels.
Much depends on the way in which editors write their recommendations. I have noticed that judges are increasingly moved by the passion of an editor's letter. Merely quoting an author's past reviews, or drawing on those clichés of the blurbs - ‘enthralling' is a current favourite - is not enough. It is encouraging also to see that the titles called in include both the familiar names as well as first novels.
I am often asked if this is a fair way of selecting entries. As we must restrict the total number of books entered in order that the judges may do their job properly, asking the publishers to select from their lists what they believe to be their best fiction is surely the only way. There is also a long-stop rule, which allows the judges to call in a title even though it has not been entered or included in a publisher's call-in list. A few years ago one such title only just missed being on the long list.
Some publishers gamble with their entries, submitting lesser-known authors as their main entries and leaving well-known names to the risky waters of the call-in process. But in my experience judges will suss out the best of the year's fiction by reading rather than by any entry stratagems. For the record in the past five years one eventual winner has emerged from the call-in process.
This year's judges are well ahead with their reading, which began in January. Friendships have developed to the extent that for their next meeting one judge has offered to cook supper - shades of last year when Hardeep Singh Koli on several occasions showed off his culinary talents to his fellow judges.
As for the quality of the submissions, James Naughtie has already gone on record that this promises to be a vintage year. To which one should add the adjective ‘another'. Last year's winner, Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger has proved hugely popular with the public, selling more than half a million copies, with one of the runners up, Sebastian Barry's The Secret Scripture not far behind.
The Man Booker longlist, or ‘Man Booker Dozen' - to be announced on July 28 - will be the first public sighting of this year's contenders. The shortlist, whittled down to six titles, follows on September 8, with the winner announced live on the BBC Ten O'Clock News on October 6.
Ion Trewin is Literary Director of the Man Booker Prize
