mister pip book jacket crop

Mister Pip is dark horse choice for punters

McEwan still favourite to win on eve of shortlist announcement

5 September 2007

Ian McEwan’s Chesil Beach showed no signs of losing its status as the bookies’ favourite to win the Man Booker Prize 2007. In the last day of Ladbrokes’ betting, Chesil Beach has been gambled into 3/1, from 4/1, to win.

Nick Weinberg of Ladbrokes said: “The debate surrounding On Chesil Beach and whether or not it’s a novella has not put off punters.”

Nicola Barker’s Darkmans trails just behind at 5/1, with Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist at 8/1.

In the past few days Lloyd Jones’ novel Mister Pip has also received a huge surge of bets, putting the title at 10/1 to win this year’s prize.

Nick Weinberg, said: “A gamble is beginning to develop on Lloyd Jones. Over the past 48 hours he’s matched the favourite Ian McEwan bet-for-bet.”

Strong online sales on Amazon.co.uk have helped fuel speculation that Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip could make the shortlist tomorrow. Mister Pip has seen the biggest increase in online sales through Amazon.co.uk since the longlist was announced last month.

Kes Nielsen, Head of Books Buying at Amazon.co.uk, said: ”Mister Pip could well be a dark horse for the shortlist and for the prize.

”With the Booker, or any other award, sales go through the roof once the announcement is made but it is a real achievement to not only maintain those sales over the following weeks but further grow them in the manner that a book like Mister Pip has.”

Overall, On Chesil Beach has sold the most copies, according to Amazon, followed by The Gift of Rain by first-time author Tan Twan Eng. Other books that have seen their sales increase were Self Help by Edward Docx and Animal’s People by Indra Singha.

The shortlist is announced tomorrow, Thursday 6th September 2007.

For latest odds please visit Ladbrokes website.

The Man Booker Prize Fiction at its finest