The Man Booker Prize for Fiction on London’s Fourth Plinth
Free readings and the 2009 Man Booker Prize longlist giveaway
To celebrate the longlist announcement of the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, book lover Graham Fudger will take to the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London on Tuesday 11 August at 11am.
One of the lucky 2,400 people to be chosen for the One & Other project, Graham will read extracts from the prize's 13 longlist titles and will then give away one of each of the books to the public.
The Man Booker Prize is the leading literary award in the English speaking world. For four decades the prize has brought recognition, reward and readership to outstanding new novels each year. The judges, chaired by broadcaster James Naughtie, will announce the winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize on BBC Ten O'Clock News on 6 October.
Graham Fudger comments "The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is an important award, promoting a diverse range of voices from around the world. It gives me a great sense of pleasure to bring works from this year's selection of writers and storytellers onto the plinth."
You can follow Graham's appearance on the Man Booker Prize Twitter - twitter.com/ManBookerPrize
One & Other, commissioned by the Mayor of London with funds from Arts Council England, and produced in partnership with Sky Arts, will see a different person take their place on the Fourth Plinth every hour, 24 hours a day, for 100 days. It runs until 14 October 2009. Applications are still open and can be made via the website. Watch all the action live from the plinth every Friday at 7pm on Sky Arts 1/HD and online 24 hours a day at www.oneandother.co.uk
For further information about the Man Booker Prize please visit http://www.themanbookerprize.com/
For press enquiries and further information please contact
Jill Cotton or Lucy Chavasse at Colman Getty
Tel: 020 7631 2666
Email: jill@colmangetty.co.uk/lucy@colmangetty.co.uk
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Notes to Editors:
- The 2009 Man Booker Prize longlist of 13 titles was announced on 28 July and includes:
Author Title Publisher
Byatt, AS The Children's Book Random House - Chatto and Windus
Coetzee, J M Summertime Random House - Harvill Secker
Foulds, Adam The Quickening Maze Random House, Jonathan Cape
Hall, Sarah How to Paint a Dead Man Faber and Faber
Harvey, Samantha The Wilderness Random House, Jonathan Cape
Lever, James Me Cheeta HarperCollins - Fourth Estate
Mantel, Hilary Wolf Hall HarperCollins - Fourth Estate
Mawer, Simon The Glass Room Little, Brown
O'Loughlin, Ed Not Untrue & Not Unkind Penguin - Ireland
Scudamore, James Heliopolis Random House - Harvill Secker
Toibin, Colm Brooklyn Penguin - Viking
Trevor, William Love and Summer Penguin - Viking
Waters, Sarah The Little Stranger Little, Brown - Virago
- The shortlist will be announced on Tuesday 8 September at a press conference at Man Group's London office and the winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2009 will be announced on Tuesday 6 October at an awards ceremony at London's Guildhall and will be broadcast live on the BBC Ten O'Clock News
- The Booker Prize for Fiction was first awarded in 1969, and Man Group plc was announced as the sponsor of the prize in April 2002, with a five year extension agreed in 2006. For a full history of the prize including previous winners, shortlisted authors and judges visit the website: http://www.themanbookerprize.com/. It is a major media and information tool which is accessed worldwide with up to the minute information about both the annual Man Booker Prize and the biennial Man Booker International Prize. Featuring news, interviews and written pieces as well as a lively forum and full history archive of the prize, the site is used by journalists, bloggers and general members of the public on a daily basis.
- The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (Atlantic Books) won the Man Booker Prize 2008. The British publishers edition of the book has sold over half a million copies and is being translated into 39 different languages.
- The Advisory Committee, which advises on any changes to the rules and on the selection of the judges, represents all sides of the book world. Its members are: Ion Trewin, Chair (Literary Director, Man Booker Prizes); Richard Cable, publisher; Mark Chilton, Company Secretary, Booker Ltd; Peter Clarke, Chief Executive, Man Group plc; Jonathan Douglas, Director of the National Literacy Trust; Victoria Glendinning, writer; Basil Comely, BBC TV; Derek Johns, literary agent; Gerry Johnson, Managing Director, Waterstone's; Peter Kemp, fiction editor, The Sunday Times; Nigel Newton, publisher; Fiammetta Rocco, literary editor, The Economist (Man Booker International Prize administrator); Eve Smith (Company Secretary, the Booker Prize Foundation); and Robert Topping; Topping & Company Booksellers.
- The Booker Prize Foundation is a registered charity (no 1090049) which, since 2002, has been responsible for the award of the prize. The trustees of the Booker Prize Foundation are former Chairman of Booker plc, Jonathan Taylor CBE (Chair); Lord Baker of Dorking CH; playwright and President of the Royal Literary Fund, Ronald Harwood CBE; former Chair of the British Council, Baroness Kennedy QC; writer, Baroness Neuberger DBE; MEP Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne; and former Finance Director of Rentokil plc, Christopher Pearce. Martyn Goff CBE, former Man Booker Prize administrator, has recently been appointed President of the Foundation.
- Man Group plc has sponsored the Man Booker Prize since 2002.
Man is a world-leading alternative investment management business. With a broad range of funds for institutional and private investors globally, it is known for its performance, innovative product design and investor service. Man's funds under management at 30 June 2009 were $43.3 billion.
The original business was founded in 1783. Today, Man Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a member of the FTSE 100 Index with a market capitalisation of around £4 billion. Man Group is a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and the FTSE4Good Index.
Man supports many awards, charities and initiatives around the world, including sponsorship of the Man Booker literary prizes). In the year to March 2008 the Man Group plc Charitable Trust gave 12% of its $12m charitable budget to charities concerned with improving literacy. A major contribution in the literacy category was a £1m pledge to the ‘Every Child a Reader' reading recovery programme spread over three years from 2006. Other sizeable donations were made to Dyslexia Action and Kids Company Reading Recovery Teachers, whilst smaller contributions were made to Write to Life, Bookaid International, Volunteer Reading Help, The Shannon Trust, RNIB Talking Books and St. Petrock's (Exeter).
Further information can be found at www.mangroupplc.com
- Booker is the UK's leading food wholesaler with over 170 branches nationwide. It serves over 350,000 independent businesses.
- The Booker Prize Archive was given on loan in 2003 to Oxford Brookes University where it now resides.
- Each year The Booker Prize Foundationpays forthe production ofthe Man Booker Prize for Fiction shortlisted titles in Braille, Giant Print and Audio formats by the Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB). The Foundation is also working with the Sound Archive of the British Library onits 'National Life Stories - Authors' Lives' project by funding archive interviews withshortlisted authors.
