The judges for the Man Booker Prize change every year, so although the award appears to have a continuous identity as the arbiter of excellence in English language fiction, in reality what you get each time is a bit of a toss-up... more
Like everybody who's ever been involved in a literary prize - I was once a judge in the Biography category of the Whitbreads (now the Costas) - I've ceased to pay them much mind... more
The experience of being an immigrant fuelled the writing of The White Tiger, the debut novel by Indian writer Aravind Adiga which has won the £50,000 Man Booker Prize... more
The Man Booker judges have determined that Aravind Adiga's debut novel about the seamier side of Indian life is the best fiction of the year. How do they do that?... more
UNEMPLOYMENT is on the rise again. Today's figures from the Office of National Statistics are likely to show an increase to 1.75 million; some economists think that by Christmas it may rise to the psychologically significant figure of two million. This is not just a short-term result of the crisis in the banks but the result of a slowdown in manufacturing and services too.... more
One of this year's Man Booker Prize judges has criticised male academics who sit on literary panels, claiming they pick "highbrow" novels over readable ones... more
The latest epic from Salman Rushdie and the hotly tipped story of post-9/11 America by Joseph O'Neill have failed to make the Man Booker shortlist... more
Tonight:
3°c
