Book Jacket for On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

McEwan is Bookies’ favourite to win

On Chesil Beach is the 3/1 favourite

8 August 2007

UK Bookie’s, William Hill, has released its odds on this year’s Man Booker Prize for Fiction following the announcement of the first ‘Man Booker Dozen’ longlist of 13 titles last night.

Graham Sharpe, who has been compiling the Booker odds for many years, said, ’Despite the initial controversy over whether this (On Chesil Beach) is a novel or novella I was always confident that it would be long-listed, and I believe it is a worthy favourite and probably one of the best Booker contenders of recent years’, said Hill’s spokesman Graham Sharpe.

William Hill’s odds* on the longlist make Nicola Barker’s ‘Darkmans’ 5/1 second favourite and also offer; 7/1 ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ by Mohsin Hamid; 8/1 Catherine O’Flynn’s ‘What Was Lost’; 9/1 A N Wilson’s ‘Winnie & Wolf’; 10/1 Indra Sinha’s ‘Animal’s People’; 10/1 ‘Consolation’ by Michael Redhill; 11/1 Anne Enright’s ‘The Gathering’; 12/1 Nikita Lalwani’s ‘Gifted’; 14/1 Edward Docx’s ‘Self Help; 14/1 ‘The Gift Of Rain’ by Tan Twan Eng; 16/1 ‘The Welsh Girl’ by Peter Ho Davies; 20/1 ‘Mister Pip’ by Lloyd Jones.

Graham Sharpe went on to explain that their job wasn’t only to second guess the judging panel but also to second guess their customers betting habits.

“I’ve been doing this for over 25 years now and this year has been the most difficult list to give odds on. Speaking purely from a bookmaker’s perspective, it’s like giving odds at Wimbledon to Roger Federer playing against a selection of local club players!” says Sharpe.

*The above odds were given by William Hill immediately after the longlist announcement. For up to date odds on the Man Booker Prize please visit the William Hill website.

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