Mantel’s bid for Booker hat-trick fails
SHE was tipped to be the first author in history to win a Booker Prize hat-trick.
But Dame Hilary Mantel’s dreams of a third award have been dashed as she has been snubbed from this year’s prestigious shortlist – which features four debut authors and just one Briton.
The Mirror and the Light, the conclusion to her Wolf Hall trilogy, was considered set for the shortlist and was even expected to nab the prize itself. But the judges said it simply wasn’t as good as the six shortlisted works, which are predominantly by new writers.
‘We thought it was an absolutely wonderful novel... But there were six books that were better, that’s all I can say personally,’ said Lee Child, author and Booker judge.
The shortlist, which features four women and two men, is the most ethnically diverse ever. Four of the six authors are non-white. Four books are by first-time novelists.
The panel were literally unable to judge any of the books by their covers this year as they were given PDFs to read instead.
Gaby Wood, literary director of the Booker Prize Foundation, said assessing the entries without knowing who the author was could be ‘an interesting experiment in relation to unconscious bias’.
Dominated by American writers, the only Briton on the list is Glasgow-born Douglas Stuart – and he now lives in the US. Margaret Busby, chairman of judges, said: ‘We were not conscious of if someone was British or not, we were looking at the books.’
The winner, who will receive £50,000, will be announced on November 17.
Last year’s prize was jointly won by Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments and Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo in a controversial landmark decision.
Dame Hilary won the prestigious literary prize for Wolf Hall in 2009 and again in 2012 for the sequel, Bring Up the Bodies.