Hope of Booker Prize glory at 88

JUST one British writer has made the shortlist for this year’s Booker Prize.

Alan Garner, the oldest author ever shortlisted, will be vying for the £50,000 prize with his novel Treacle Walker.

The writer, who turns 88 on the night of the ceremony on October 17, is up against Americans Percival Everett and Elizabeth Strout, Zimbabwean NoViolet Bulawayo, Shehan Karunatilaka of Sri Lanka and Claire Keegan from Ireland.

The Booker was opened to any book written in English in 2014. On the lack of British authors, judge Mike Harrison said: ‘It’s about the books, not the context’.