With hundreds of thousands of fiction titles hitting the bookshop shelves every year, more and more of us base our reading choices on literary prizes.
The words ‘Long listed for the Man Booker Prize’ printed on a title can be enough to transform an author’s fortune, as people grapple to make sense of what they should read among a bookshop stuffed with new material. If that sounds like you, then it’s worth swotting up on the main prizes and what they mean…
The Man Booker Prize
Approaching its fortieth year, the Man Booker Prize for Fiction is one of the UK’s most prestigious literary awards. After being long listed in 2004, eventual winner Alan Hollinghurst hit the bestseller list with his high-literature novel The Line of Beauty. First prize is £50,000; nominees must be from the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.
Dinner party trivia: Prize money is put up by Man Group plc, an investment firm. The name Booker doesn’t relate to the prize’s literary nature, but to the British food distributor and co-sponsor Booker plc. Previous winners include Iris Murdoch, Roddy Doyle and Kingsley Amis. When asked how she would spend her prize money in 1990, A S Byatt replied that she’d build her longed-for swimming pool in Provence.
The Pulitzer Prize
When the skilful newspaper man and ardent social campaigner Joseph Pulitzer died in 1904, he made provisions in his will for a prize rewarding excellence in the arts. The Pulitzer panel of judges has since attracted much criticism for its choice of winning books. Many, if not most, have never made their way onto the bestsellers’ lists.
Dinner party trivia: One of the most celebrated winners in recent years was Michael Cunningham’s novel The Hours, which has been made into a Hollywood film starring Nicole Kidman in the role of Virginia Woolf. Only American authors, musicians, photographers and journalists can enter into the competition.
The Whitbread Book Awards
Created in 1971, the Whitbread rewards the most enjoyable books published each year. Hence judges are not members of the literati, but rather ardent readers such as Channel 4’s Jon Snow, journalist Ian Hislop and even schoolchildren. The winners of the five categories (First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book) go on to compete for the overall Whitbread Book of the Year prize fund of £25,000.
Dinner party trivia: Only once has the overall Book of the Year title gone to the winner of the children’s category – that was Phillip Pullman (pictured left) for The Amber Spyglass in 2001. In 2002 Sid Smith (also pictures left) won First Novel prize for Something Like A House, praised for its ‘true portrayal’ of contemporary China. It transpired that Smith’s only experience of the country was a one-hour stopover at Hong Kong airport.
The Orange Prize
In January 1992, a group of book industry experts met to address the overlooking of women’s writing in terms of literary accolades. In 1995 this group approached mobile phone provider Orange and the Orange Prize for Fiction was born – the UK’s only annual award for women writers, judged by women panellists. First prize is £30,000.
Dinner party trivia: The Orange Prize is one of the most controversial in Britain, much criticised for the fact it excludes men, and raising questions over women’s literature. The winner of the 2005 prize was Lionel Shriver’s We Need To Talk About Kevin, which attracted controversy when panellists admitted to having not liked the book but being won over by the passion shown for it by other panellists.
The Nobel Prize
As well as awarding yearly accolades for excellence in chemistry, economics, physics, medicine and peace, the Nobel Prize, established in 1901, recognises achievements in literature. The prize was established in the will and testament of Swedish dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel. The 2005 laureate was playwright Harold Pinter, who used his acceptance speech platform to condemn the war in Iraq.
Dinner party trivia: The prize has twice been refused: In 1958 the Soviet Government forced Boris Pasternak to turn down the offer of Laureate. And in 1964 Frenchman Jean-Paul Sartre refused on the grounds that such honours could interfere with a writer’s responsibilities to his readers.
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One of the more unusual prizes on the literary calendar is the Prince Maurice, designed to celebrate the literary love story and raise the profile of the island of Mauritius. Zadie Smith’s novel On Beauty made it onto the 2006 shortlist. If she wins she’ll receive an all-expenses-paid two-week retreat at the five-star resort which sponsors the event!
When Harold Pinter won the Nobel Prize For Literature, he took home a cheque for £723,000, making the prize one of the most lucrative of its kind in the world.
In March 2005, an unheard of teacher living as a recluse in Country Durham won the Northern Rock Foundation Writer’s Award for her poetry. She was awarded £60,000 and said she would spend the cash on a new roof for her run-down miner’s cottage.
