And the winner is…

The longlist of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2009 has just been published so it’s time to get down to some serious reading. There are thirteen titles on this list but by the 8th September that will be whittled down to about six. Then, on the 6th October, one lucky writer will have his/her name added to the select list of forty-two authors, all former Booker winners going back to when it started in 1968.

Which authors are considered?

The author must be a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland or Zimbabwe and the book must be an original full-length novel written in the English language.

How are novels included on the initial list of about 130 books?

* Each publisher’s imprint may submit two titles
* Previous winners are automatically included
* Also shortlisted authors from the last ten years
* Publishers can make written submissions for further entries

What is the prize?

* A cash prize of £50,000
* Having Booker Prize Winner printed across the cover of every future book
* A huge increase of sales and a place in literary history

The longlist for 2009 includes two former Booker Prize Winners, four former shortlisted authors, one ghost written autobiography of a Hollywood chimpanzee, three Irish writers, two first time novelists, and two novels that haven’t been even been published yet. Odds of 3/1 have been given to the novel that is really a thinly disguised autobiography of JM Coetzee but my favourite is The Glass Room by Simon Mawer. Who will win? I have absolutely no idea!

The Longlist:

* The Children's Book by AS Byatt
* Summertime by JM Coetze
* The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds
* How to paint a dead man by Sarah Hall
* The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey
* Me Cheeta by James Lever
* Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
* The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
* Not Untrue & Not Unkind by Ed O'Loughlin
* Heliopolis James by Scudamore
* Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
* Love and Summer by William Trevor
* The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Former winners:

2008 Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger India
2007 Anne Enright, The Gathering Ireland
2006 Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss India
2005 John Banville, The Sea Ireland
2004 Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty United Kingdom
2003 DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little Australia/Mexico
2002 Yann Martel, Life of Pi Canada
2001 Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang Australia
2000 Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin Canada
1999 J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace South Africa
1998 Ian McEwan , Amsterdam United Kingdom
1997 Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things India
1996 Graham Swift, Last Orders United Kingdom
1995 Pat Barker, The Ghost Road United Kingdom
1994 James Kelman, How Late It Was, How Late United Kingdom
1993 Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha Ireland
1992 Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient Sri Lanka/Canada
1992 Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger United Kingdom
1991 Ben Okri , The Famished Road Nigeria
1990 A. S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance United Kingdom
1989 Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day United Kingdom/Japan
1988 Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda Australia
1987 Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger United Kingdom
1986 Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils United Kingdom
1985 Keri Hulme, The Bone People New Zealand
1984 Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac United Kingdom
1983 J. M. Coetzee, Life & Times of Michael K South Africa
1982 Thomas Keneally, Schindler's Ark Australia
1981 Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children India/United Kingdom
1980 William Golding, Rites of Passage United Kingdom
1979 Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore United Kingdom
1978 Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea Ireland/United Kingdom
1977 Paul Scott, Staying On United Kingdom
1976 David Storey, Saville United Kingdom
1975 Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust United Kingdom/Germany
1974 Stanley Middleton, Holiday United Kingdom
1974 Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist South Africa
1973 J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur United Kingdom
1972 John Berger, G. United Kingdom
1971 V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State Trinidad & Tobago/UK
1970 Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member United Kingdom
1969 P. H. Newby, Something to Answer For United Kingdom

What a Swine!

I worried about it, listened with growing alarm at each radio report, I checked symptoms online, discussed protocols with fellow workers who listened politely, bored looks on their bemused faces. I cleaned my bedroom, figuring that no doctor would be able to tend to me if she had to climb over various un-specifiable obstacles and piles of unsorted junk, I stocked up on bottles of sparkling water – my treat, abandoned in these economic times – and armed myself with a stack of books. If I were going to be stuck in bed it would be in the excellent company of J.M. Coetzee. Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Childhood lay on my bedside table, the last nine pages waiting to be savoured. This fictionalized memoir of Coetzee’s early life growing up in South Africa is followed by Youth, next on the reading list.

Monday morning I proceeded to come down with it: my eyes started to irritate, a headache descended, my ears felt funny and I definitely felt feverish. I dashed over to the chemist to buy a top of the range one-second thermometer - I’d wanted one for years, now was the perfect time - and stuck this new fangled must-have in my shell like: it was down! I couldn’t believe it: 36.3, not a single digit over 37. Still, I felt dog rough. Home beckoned, appointments cancelled for the rest of the day, sheets pulled over my head and sleep came instantly.

Tuesday morning, after a hearty breakfast, I settled in for a day’s rest (I still felt awful, I can assure you) and started reading: I finished Boyhood (it was excellent), got stuck into Youth and noted, with delight, that part three, Summertime, is due out in September.

It seems that I’m one of the lucky ones. Whatever it is, it’s not going to lay me low for long and John Maxwell Coetzee has been such good company that the time has passed quickly.

The last word, I will leave to the enigmatic Hunter S. Thompson who wrote, "In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile; and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. We owe that to ourselves and our crippled self-image as something better than a nation of panicked sheep."