Julian Barnes wins Man Booker Prize
19.10.2011
He was the bookies’ favourite and last night three-times Booker-nominated author Julian Barnes finally walked away with the big prize for his novel The Sense of an Ending.
The chair of this year's judges, former MI5 director-general Stella Rimington, said the book had "the markings of a classic of English Literature. It is exquisitely written, subtly plotted and reveals new depths with each reading."
Afterwards Barnes admitted to being "as much relieved as I am delighted" to win the £50,000 prize. At 150 pages The Sense of an Ending is one of the shortest novels ever to win the Booker, and focuses on childhood friendship and our shifting concept of memory. It is narrated by a middle-aged man, Tony Webster, who ponders the paths he and his friends have chosen as the past catches up with him via a diary.
"One of the things that the book does is talk about the human kind," said Rimington. "None of us really knows who we are. We present ourselves in all sorts of ways, but maybe the ways we present ourselves are not how we really are."
In his speech Barnes thanked the judges "for their wisdom", the sponsors "for their cheque" and also made reference to the growth of e-publishing: "Those of you who have seen my book, whatever you think of its contents, will probably agree it is a beautiful object. And if the physical book, as we've come to call it, is to resist the challenge of the ebook, it has to look like something worth buying, worth keeping."
It took the judges (Rimington, MP Chris Mullin, former Spectator editor Matthew d'Ancona, author Susan Hill, and the Daily Telegraph's head of books Gaby Wood) just 31 minutes to decide on the winner, after what Rimington described as "an interesting debate."
"There was no blood on the carpet, nobody went off in a huff and we all ended up firm friends and happy with the result," she said.
Barnes, 65, had been shortlisted for the prize three times previously; in 1984 with Flaubert's Parrot, when he lost out to Anita Brookner; in 1998 with England, England, losing to Ian McEwan; and with Arthur & George in 2005, when he lost to John Banville.
Ironically, the controversy surrounding this year's Man Booker Prize, which had some critics attacking it for prioritising readability over literary merit, maybe have had a positive effect. Despite the literary row, this year's shortlist has been the best-selling in Booker history - sales of the shortlisted novels are up 127pc on last year.