The Siege of Krishnapur

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The Siege of Krishnapur wins the Culture Show vote in Comrie

1 July 2008

The Best of the Booker, a one-off award to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, will be announced on 10 July. With the voting closing on 8 July there is only one week left to vote for your favourite.

Last week's BBC2 Culture Show featured Tim Samuels flooding the village of Comrie in Perthshire with hundreds of copies of the shortlisted novels to ask whether the villagers' choice will be the same as the actual winner.

It was a closely fought battle for first place, but The Siege of Krishnapur narrowly beat Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. JG Farrell's satirical novel, detailing the siege of an Indian town during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 told from three perspectives, emerged the most popular Best of Booker title in Comrie.

Despite being one of the earlier winners, the villagers called the book a "rip roaring yarn", enjoyed the humour and adventure, and likened it to the 'Indiana Jones' films. Tim Samuels suggested the Best of the Booker award might bring the book back in to circulation after it had dropped off the radar for modern readers.

To see the rest of the shortlist and to place your vote visit the voting pages.

To watch the documentary visit the BBC2 Culture Show website.

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