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Salman Rushdie wins best of Booker
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent10 Jul 2008
Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie's story told by a child born at the moment of Indian independence, has been named the Best of the Booker on the 40th anniversary of the famous literary prize.
Nearly 8,000 members of the public took part in the poll which was the first time ordinary readers have been asked for their opinion of the most highbrow of book awards.
Six of the 41 winning titles - the prize was shared in 1992 - were presented as a shortlist, which included arguably more popular choices such as Pat Barker's The Ghost Road and Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda.
But in the end, Rushdie's ambitious title - in which the fortunes of his protagonist, Saleem Sinai, are set against those of an independent India - came up trumps.
The public vote chimed with the result in 1993 when the novel was named Booker of Bookers by an expert panel at the 25th birthday celebrations of the award.
Announcing the result at the London Literature Festival today, Victoria Glendinning, the novelist and critic who chaired the shortlisting panel, said: "The readers have spoken - in their thousands. And we do believe that they have made the right choice."
Rushdie, 61, could not attend the announcement as he is touring America with his latest novel, The Enchantress of Florence, so his sons, Zafar and Milan, accepted the trophy on his behalf.
But in a message, he said the vote was "marvellous news". "I'm absolutely delighted and would like to thank all those readers around the world who voted for Midnight's Children."
Winning the Booker in 1981 - the first year the ceremony was televised - transformed Rushdie's fortunes. Grimus, his first venture into fiction, had sold less than 1,000 copies but Midnight's Children, his second novel, quickly sold 43,000 copies after the victory.
Jonathan Ruppin, of Foyles bookshop, said the Best of the Booker was an artificial exercise because the public were not allowed to pick from the complete list of previous winners.
"Readers have not been able to vote for some of their most enduring favourites, such as The God Of Small Things (by Arundhati Roy), The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro), Possession (AS Byatt) and The Life of Pi (Yann Martel). If they had, I expect it would have been between Rushdie, Martel and Roy," he said.
"But the Man Booker Prize is still the most significant literary prize in Britain, attracting interest like no other award. Some winners are considerably more popular than others, but I think that's more about taste than quality. Anything which gets people discussing books is to be applauded: word-ofmouth is still the most important tool the book industry has."
He added that Midnight's Children always appeared on polls of people's favourite books so it was not a surprise to see it win. "He's not to everyone's taste, but from a bookseller's point of view, authors who get books into the news are always welcome."
Many critics regard Midnight's Children-as Rushdie's finest novel, but its fame was subsequently eclipsed by the furore surrounding The Satanic Verses, which offended many Muslims in 1988 and led to Rushdie spending years in hiding. More than a third of the votes cast in the public vote were for the novel. Half the voters were under 35.
The result was a disaster for bookmakers, Ladbrokes said. Midnight's Children began as the 1/8 favourite and took 90 per cent of all bets. Spokesman Nick Weinberg said: "It was an absolutely shocking result."
