Recently I read 'All in a Don's Day' by the acclaimed classicist, and this year's chair of the Booker Prize judges, Mary Beard.
She referred to W. Somerset Maugham as saying: the best way to treat the 'Book of the Moment' is not to read it for three or four years - it's amazing how many 'must reads' turn out to be 'don't bothers'.
I can't actually find that quote, but hope that the Longlist of novels presented in this year's Booker Prize will all stand the test of time. Our discussion in our Booker Book Group Challenge on Monday evening led to a number of the books being given short shrift.
You can take a look at my report of our discussion here.
The Booker judges' Shortlist will be revealed on Tuesday 22 September at 7pm and you can attend the event at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in the Southbank Centre. The judges will be there to say something about how they came to their decisions – chair Mary Beard and fellow panellists Raymond Antrobus, Jarvis Cocker, Rebecca Liu and Patricia Lockwood will be in conversation with Booker Prize Foundation chief executive Gaby Wood. The event is also being livestreamed on the Southbank Centre’s website.
Will there be any surprises this year?
When Anita Brookner won the Booker Prize in 1984 with 'Hotel du Lac', it was considered ‘an unexpected choice’ with criticism in the press and supposedly 'widespread disappointment’ among booksellers. The chair of the judges then, Richard Cobb, had said they wanted to choose books in their list that would ‘appeal to the general public’. 'Hotel du Lac' has continued to sell well in the subsequent 40 years since it was first recognised. We will be finding out more about Anita Brookner's life, career and books in the visit by her biographer Hermione Lee in November (tickets now on sale - scroll down for details).
Which of the 2026 Booker Prize titles will have the widest appeal, I wonder.
Thank you for reading.
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