MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018
MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018
jeanniejeanniejeannie.co.uk BLOG 18th October 2018
The winner of the Man Booker Prize, which recognises high quality literary fiction written in English, was announced 16th October 2018.
Anna Burns was named the winner of this year’s Prize – becoming the first author from Northern Ireland to triumph.
Milkman, set in an unnamed city in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, is a coming-of-age story about a young girl’s affair with a married man.
Burns, who told the BBC she was “stunned” to win, will receive £50,000 in prize money.
The judges said Milkman was “simply marvellous”. They highlighted the “distinctive and consistently realised voice of the funny, resilient, astute, plain-spoken, first-person protagonist”.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday, Burns said the £50,000 prize would be life-changing.
“I’ll pay my debts,” she said. “It will make a huge monetary difference and I will become solvent and live on what’s left.
“Writers don’t earn a lot of money so that’s a huge gift that’s been given to me,” she went on.
Milkman beat competition from Everything Under by Daisy Johnson – who, at 27, was the youngest nominee in Man Booker history.
The other nominees were The Long Take by Robin Robertson, Washington Black by Esi Edugyan, The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner, and The Overstory by Richard Powers.
The Duchess of Cornwall presented Burns with the trophy.
Milkman is the fourth novel to be written by Burns, who was born in Belfast in 1962.
Her debut, No Bones, was published in 2001, and followed by Little Constructions six years later. Her most recent work prior to Milkman was Mostly Hero – a novella published in 2014.
Speaking to BBC News, Kwame Anthony Appiah, the chairman of the judges, said: “One of the wonderful things about [Milkman] is the texture of the language.
“It’s written in this amazing voice of this woman who is living in a divided society.
“She’s being harassed by a man who is sexually interested in her, and he’s taking advantage of divisions in the society to use the power he has, because of those divisions, to go after her.”
Burns opted not to give names to her characters in the novel. Wven her narrator refers to herself as “Middle Sister”.
Speaking after her win, Burns told BBC News: “The book just didn’t work with names.
“There’s a lack of safety of being straightforward in the book and declaring who you are. But really, if I put in names it lost power, it lost atmosphere.”
Asked how her real-life experience informed her writing, Burns said: “I was brought up in Belfast and that did have a huge influence on the book, writing about an entire society affected by long-term violence, living under intense pressure, and how that becomes normality.”
The overall winner of this prestigious award wins £50,000 and is likely to see a huge boost in sales. Last year’s winner, Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, saw its sales figures increase by 1,227% after the prize was announced.
This is the 50th year there has been a Man Booker Award. This is a list of winners by year:
Year Author Title Genre(s)
1 1969 P. H. Newby Something to Answer For Novel
2 1970 Bernice Rubens The Elected Member Novel
1970 J. G. Farrell Troubles Novel
3 1971 V. S. Naipaul In a Free State Short story
4 1972 John Berger G. Experimental novel
5 1973 J. G. Farrell The Siege of Krishnapur Novel
6 1974 Nadine Gordimer The Conservationist Novel
Stanley Middleton Holiday Novel
7 1975 Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Heat and Dust Historical novel
8 1976 David Storey Saville Novel
9 1977 Paul Scott Staying On Novel
10 1978 Iris Murdoch The Sea, the Sea Philosophical novel
11 1979 Penelope Fitzgerald Offshore Novel
12 1980 William Golding Rites of Passage Novel
13 1981 Salman Rushdie Midnight’s Children Magic realism
14 1982 Thomas Keneally Schindler’s Ark Biographical novel
15 1983 J. M. Coetzee Life & Times of Michael K Novel
16 1984 Anita Brookner Hotel du Lac Novel
17 1985 Keri Hulme The Bone People Mystery novel
18 1986 Kingsley Amis The Old Devils Comic novel
19 1987 Penelope Lively Moon Tiger Novel
20 1988 Peter Carey Oscar and Lucinda Historical novel
21 1989 Kazuo Ishiguro The Remains of the Day Historical novel
22 1990 A. S. Byatt Possession Historical novel
23 1991 Ben Okri The Famished Road Magic realism
24 1992 Michael Ondaatje The English Patient Historiographic metafiction
24 Barry Unsworth Sacred Hunger Historical novel
25 1993 Roddy Doyle Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha Novel
26 1994 James Kelman How Late It Was, How Late Stream of consciousness
27 1995 Pat Barker The Ghost Road War novel
28 1996 Graham Swift Last Orders Novel
29 1997 Arundhati Roy The God of Small Things Novel
30 1998 Ian McEwan Amsterdam Novel
31 1999 J. M. Coetzee Disgrace Novel
32 2000 Margaret Atwood The Blind Assassin Historical novel
33 2001 Peter Carey True History of the Kelly Gang Historical novel
34 2002 Yann Martel Life of Pi Fantasy and adventure novel
35 2003 DBC Pierre Vernon God Little Black comedy
36 2004 Alan Hollinghurst The Line of Beauty Historical novel
37 2005 John Banville The Sea Novel
38 2006 Kiran Desai The Inheritance of Loss Novel
39 2007 Anne Enright The Gathering Novel
40 2008 Aravind Adiga The White Tiger Novel
41 2009 Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall Historical novel
42 2010 Howard Jacobson The Finkler Question Comic novel
43 2011 Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending Novel
44 2012 Hilary Mantel Bring Up the Bodies Historical novel
45 2013 Eleanor Catton The Luminaries Historical novel
46 2014 Richard Flanagan The Narrow Road to the Deep North Historical novel
47 2015 Marlon James A Brief History of Seven Killings Historical/experimental novel
48 2016 Paul Beatty The Sellout Satirical novel
49 2017 George Saunders Lincoln in the Bardo Historical/experimental novel
50 2018 Anna Burns Milkman Novel
In 2018, to celebrate the 50 anniversary, the Golden Man Booker was awarded. One book from each decade was selected by a panel of judges: Naipaul’s In a Free State (the 1971 winner), Lively’s Moon Tiger (1987), Ondaatje’s The English Patient (1992), Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo. The winner, by popular vote, was The English Patient.
In 2006, the Man Booker Prize set up a ‘Best of Beryl’ prize, for the author Beryl Bainbridge, who has been nominated five times and yet has failed to win once. The prize is said to count as a Booker Prize. The nominees were An Awfully Big Adventure, Every Man for Himself, The Bottle Factory Outing, The Dressmaker and Master Georgie, which won.
INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE FOR THE DAY
8 COMMON THINGS YOU DO THAT WASTE YOUR LIFE
- WASTING TIME ON DISTRACTIONS
- BY NOT CHASING YOUR DREAMS
- NOT DISCIPLINING YOURSELF
- NOT SPENDING TIME WITH FAMILY
- BY NOT EXPANDING YOUR COMFORT ZONE
- WASTING LIFE BY WORRYING CONSTANTLY
- LIVING TO PLEASE OTHERS
- DOING THINGS YOU REALLY DO NOT WANT TO DO
HAPPINESS IS…
Happiness is…going through life without wasting it
GRANDAD’S ONE LINER JOKE OF THE DAY
My wife and I can never agree on holidays. I want to fly to exotic places and stay in five star hotels. And she wants to come with me. – Kelly Kingham
LOVE IS…
Love is… Knowing the score
TRACK OF THE DAY
Rocking Goose – Johnny & the Hurricanes
Highest Chart Position: No.3 17th November 1960
WHAT DAY IS IT?
Special days for 18th October
Get Smart About Credit Day
Chocolate Cupcake Day
No Beard Day
Conflict Resolution Day
Discover more detail at https://www.daysoftheyear.com/
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