The Booker Prize celebrates 40th

Major celebrations for anniversary

3 December 2007

Organisers of the Man Booker Prize have announced exciting celebratory plans for 2008, the 40th anniversary of the Booker Prize (now the Man Booker Prize) for Fiction.

Arguably the most important literary prize in the English speaking world, a range of events and initiatives are planned throughout the year to celebrate this landmark anniversary, including a campaign to directly involve the reading public.

Since P.H.Newby won the first prize with Something to Answer For in 1969, ‘the Booker’ has attracted consistent media attention worldwide and the 40th anniversary promises to be no exception.

Speaking today, Ion Trewin, Adminstrator for the Man Booker Prizes stated:

‘When the Booker Prize was established forty years ago the aim was to create an English-language Prix Goncourt, an award that would encourage the wider reading of the very best in fiction across the UK and the Commonwealth’,

Trewin added ‘The programme for the 40th anniversary is testimony to that aim being achieved – whether you judge the prize by numbers of books sold, the number of films it has helped generate or the way it has opened our eyes to a range and quality of writing that might otherwise have been ignored.’

Winners of the prize can look forward not only to worldwide recognition but also a place in the history of English literature. Contenders over the years have ranged from well established authors to first time novelists. In the past decade Arundhati Roy for The God of Smalls Things (1997), Yann Martel for Life of Pi (2002) and DBC Pierre for Vernon God Little (2003) were each unknown authors until winning. As testimony to the enduring quality of the winners, all of the books which have scooped the prize are currently in print, with the exception of only one, Something to Answer For. Rights for this are currently under discussion for the anniversary.

Celebratory plans include a major exhibition being held at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) and a season of Booker film adaptations at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts, London).

The British Council is also working towards the creation of an online collection of contemporary British literature and is in negotiation with publishers to include former Booker and Man Booker Prize winners as e-books.

In addition, arts and literary festivals across the UK will be joining in the celebrations by hosting Booker Prize inspired anniversary events. The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, Canterbury Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival and The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival are already on board and activities will include panel discussions with critics, winners and judges past and present.

‘Over the last four decades the prize has continued to recognise, though not without controversy, the best of contemporary fiction. It is a glittering prize based on integrity and the independence of its processes,’ says Jonathan Taylor, Chair, The Booker Prize Foundation.

Further details will be announced in the new year for major events around the 40th anniversary, updates on all these plans and more can be found here at the Man Booker website.

To read the full press release please visit the Media Centre.

The Man Booker Prize Fiction at its finest