Information Bulletin
19 September 2006
The Man Booker Prize Shortlist
The Man Booker Prize shortlist was announced on the 14 September, and several members of Lerwick Book Group attended the shortlist event in London, at the London Library in Piccadilly. The Group is one of six book groups round the UK (the other groups are all from England) picked to shadow this year’s Man Booker prize, and will now be reading the six shortlisted books before the winner is announced on the 10 October. The group will discuss the books and vote for their own winner, and are also posting views in an online diary on the official Booker website at www.themanbookerprize.com/blog.
The group has been looking forward to this project since being selected a few months ago, and the London event was a chance to meet not only the other reading groups and organisers, but also the Booker judges and other people from the publishing world. There was also a reception for the groups at Random House publishers.
Karen Fraser from Shetland Library, where Lerwick Book Group is based, said ‘The shortlist evening was really enjoyable, it was lovely to be an insider at such a big literary event. We’re also excited about the process of reading through the final list. It seems to be a surprising shortlist, with a lot of the fancied names left off. We were personally very disappointed that James Robertson wasn’t on it, having met him the previous weekend at Wordplay and been really impressed by his readings.’
The group now meet every week to swap books and views in the run up to the prize, with a final meeting to watch the result live on television on the night it’s announced. There is more information about Lerwick Book Group on the library web site at www.shetland-library.gov.uk.
Attaching photograph:
Members of Lerwick Book Group with Hermione Lee, Chair of this year’s Man Booker judging panel.
L to R:
Laura Scantlebury, Morag Nicolson, Hermione Lee, Karen Fraser, Aileen Paterson.
Ends.