Bainbridge proud to be ‘most nominated’

Writer reveals true feelings about the Booker Prize

9 February 2008

Dame Beryl Bainbridge, who was interviewed by Kirsty Lang on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs this week, revealed her true feelings about being nominated so many times for the Booker Prize. Dubbed by the media as the ‘perpetual Booker Prize bridesmaid’, Bainbridge explained that she was delighted to have been shortlisted so many times and hoped that no-one else would ever beat her record.

Bainbridge, born in Lancashire in November 1934, wrote her first novel, Harriet Said, during the 1950s, although it was not published until 1972. She has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times; The Dressmaker (1973); The Bottle Factory Outing (1974), which won the Guardian Fiction Prize; An Awfully Big Adventure (1990) which drew on her experiences as an actress working in Liverpool during the 1950s and was adapted as a film; Every Man for Himself (1996) which won the Whitbread Novel Award; and Master Georgie (1998) which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction). According to Queenie, the story of Dr Johnson’s relationship with Hester Thrale, was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2001.

Speaking on Radio 4, Bainbridge explained that her publisher had never taken the Booker Prize seriously, so neither had she, but that she enjoyed coming along to the dinner.

Dame Beryl Bainbridge was talking to Kirsty Lang on Radio 4 Desert Island Discs on 3 February 2008 (repeated on 8 February 2008)

To read Erica Wagner saluting ‘the eccentric genius of Beryl Bainbridge’ visit Times Online

The Man Booker Prize Fiction at its finest