Tag Archives: Book Awards

July 30, 2026 · 5:45 pm

The Booker Prize 2026 Longlist

The longlist for this year’s Booker Prize was announced on Tuesday. The 13 books are:

The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis
Switzy by Emma Cline
Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman
The End of Everything by M. John Harrison
The Disappearers by Marlon James
Black Bag by Luke Kennard
The Renovation by Kenan Orhan
May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry
The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley
The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout
John of John by Douglas Stuart
All Them Dogs by Djamel White
The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams

The Booker Prize 2026 Longlist

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July 26, 2026 · 3:30 pm

The Booker Prize 2026: Predictions, Preferences and Possibilities

My Booker Prize predictions list is an annual tradition, although based on my track record for predictions in recent years, I have probably scuppered the chances of my choices below. Any novel originally written in English and published in the UK between 1st October 2025 and 30th September 2026 will be eligible, but it is impossible to know for sure which novels have been submitted for consideration by their publishers.

Departure(s) Julian Barnes John of John Douglas StuartVigil George SaundersSon of Nobody Yann Martel

 

 

 

 

 

A significant chunk of the longlist could potentially consist of previous winners of the Prize, whose latest efforts are usually considered automatically. Departure(s) by Julian Barnes is said to be the final novel by the author of the 2011 winner The Sense of an Ending and deals with similar themes of love, ageing and unreliable narrators. John of John by Douglas Stuart could follow the success of Shuggie Bain in 2020 and is set on the Isle of Harris. Vigil by George Saunders sounds as odd as the 2016 winner Lincoln in the Bardo and is about a dying Texas oil billionaire. Son of Nobody by Yann Martel is a retelling of the Trojan War and seems to be very different from the hugely successful Life of Pi which won the Prize back in 2002. It will be interesting to see if Son of Nobody impresses the classicist Mary Beard who chairs this year’s judging panel.

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December 20, 2025 · 3:46 pm

Books I Read in November 2025

The Bookseller of HayThe Bookseller of Hay by James Hanning is a biography of Richard Booth, the second-hand bookseller who helped establish Hay-on-Wye as the book town of Wales. To say that Booth, the self-proclaimed King of Hay, was a bit of a character is something of an understatement. His various eccentricities, ambiguities and contradictions make him an intriguing subject for a biography, with examples of extreme generosity and determination as well as callousness and selfishness. Although Booth wasn’t involved in the development of the Hay Festival, it seems unlikely that this major annual event would exist in Hay without his early support for the second-hand book trade in the town. I particularly enjoyed reading about Booth’s colourful life in the 1960s and 1970s among the many recognisable landmarks in Hay. Many thanks to Little Brown Book Group for sending me a review copy via NetGalley. Continue reading →

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July 29, 2025 · 5:51 pm

The Booker Prize 2025 Longlist

The longlist for this year’s Booker Prize was announced today. The 13 books are:

Love Forms by Claire Adam
The South by Tash Aw
Universality by Natasha Brown
One Boat by Jonathan Buckley
Flashlight by Susan Choi
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Audition by Katie Kitamura
The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits
The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
Endling by Maria Reva
Flesh by David Szalay
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga

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July 27, 2025 · 1:31 pm

The Booker Prize 2025: Predictions, Preferences and Possibilities

Nesting Roisin O’DonnellConfessions Catherine AireyRipeness Sarah Moss

 

 

 

 

It’s that time of year again… I haven’t had much success with my Booker Prize predictions in the last couple of years, but it’s still fun to consider which books might appear on the longlist, due to be announced this Tuesday. Eligible novels must have been published in the UK between 1st October 2024 and 30th September 2025.

I would of course like to see Ripeness by Sarah Moss on the longlist alongside Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell which is my stand-out debut novel of the year so far. Confessions by Catherine Airey could also be in with a chance. Continue reading →

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June 25, 2025 · 6:02 pm

Books I Read in May 2025

One More Croissant for the Road Felicity CloakeOne More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake documents her gastronomic travels cycling 2,300 kilometres around France and sampling all the regional culinary delights the country has to offer. I enjoyed Red Sauce Brown Sauce which saw Cloake travelling around the UK in search of breakfast food, although that particular tour was frequently scuppered by Covid-19 restrictions, so it was nice to read a pre-pandemic travelogue this time. Cloake writes delicious descriptions of the food she consumes, but there are plenty of stressful moments too, including train strikes, punctures, torrential rain and erratic opening hours. The Pause Café sections about the history of French food were very interesting and Cloake is an enthusiastic Francophile who pokes gentle fun at French idiosyncrasies while developing a system for ranking croissants with the seriousness that the task deserves. I am looking forward to reading Cloake’s new book Peach Street to Lobster Lane about American cuisine.
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January 5, 2025 · 4:34 pm

My Books of the Year 2024

It’s that time of year again… here are my favourite books I read in 2024.

I usually read more non-fiction these days and 2024 was an excellent year for memoirs. My Family: The Memoir by David Baddiel is a pretty much perfect blend of comedy and empathy about his dysfunctional parents. Knife by Salman Rushdie is a frank account of the near-fatal attack the author suffered in 2022 at a literary event and My Good Bright Wolf by Sarah Moss is about the author’s eating disorder which saw her relapse during the pandemic.

My Family David BaddielKnife Salman RushdieMy Good Bright Wolf Sarah Moss

 

 

 

 

From 2022, Original Sins by Matt Rowland Hill is an extremely candid memoir about his evangelical Baptist upbringing in south Wales and substance abuse as an adult. Ruskin Park by Rory Cellan Jones is a very affecting book about how his parents met in the 1950s while working at the BBC and Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart is an astutely observed political memoir about the nine years he spent as an MP and government minister.
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August 2, 2024 · 5:56 pm

The Booker Prize 2024 Longlist

Booker Prize 2024 Longlist

The Booker Prize longlist was announced on Tuesday. The 13 titles are:

Wild Houses by Colin Barrett
Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel
James by Percival Everett
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
My Friends by Hisham Matar
This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud
Held by Anne Michaels
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
Enlightenment by Sarah Perry
Playground by Richard Powers
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood Continue reading →

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July 28, 2024 · 11:53 am

The Booker Prize 2024: Predictions, Preferences and Possibilities

The longlist for this year’s Booker Prize is due to be announced on Tuesday 30th July. I’ve had mixed results over the last decade or so in my attempts to predict some likely contenders alongside my personal preferences and other possibilities, but it’s always fun to guess anyway.

Long Island Colm Toibin

Ghost Mountain Ronan HessionIntermezzo Sally RooneyJames Percival Everett

 

 

 

 

 

Irish authors often dominate the shortlists as they did last year when ‘Prophet Song’ by Paul Lynch won the Prize. I am keen to read Long Island by Colm Tóibín which is a sequel to Brooklyn. Ghost Mountain by Rónán Hession is a fable about a mountain that suddenly appears and sounds rather different from his first two novels Leonard and Hungry Paul and Panenka. I don’t know much about Intermezzo by Sally Rooney which will be published in September – books eligible for this year’s Prize must have been published in the UK between 1st October 2023 and 30th September 2024 – but it’s hard to imagine Rooney moving too far away from the themes of her previous novels including Normal People which was longlisted in 2018. Continue reading →

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August 7, 2023 · 4:52 pm

The Booker Prize 2023 Longlist

The Booker Prize Longlist 2023The Booker Prize longlist was announced on Tuesday. The 13 titles are:

A Spell of Good Things by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney
This Other Eden by Paul Harding
Pearl by Siân Hughes
All the Little Bird-Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
Western Lane by Chetna Maroo
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

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July 22, 2023 · 1:19 pm

The Booker Prize 2023: Predictions, Possibilities and Preferences

The Booker Prize 2023In my Booker Prize blog post last year, I noted that my longlist predictions lists in 2020 and 2021 included the eventual winners in those years: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart and The Promise by Damon Galgut. I posed the question of whether I could make it three years in a row. The answer was a resounding no, but I think it’s fair to say that last year’s winner The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka didn’t feature in too many other predictions lists either, so I guess that was a small consolation.

As ever, my annual list of predictions consists of what I think could be some strong possibilities alongside my own personal preferences, based on a few novels I have read and others I have heard about. Novels published in the UK between 1 October 2022 and 30 September 2023 will be eligible. It’s impossible to know for sure which novels have been submitted for consideration, although the latest efforts by previous winners are usually considered automatically. Continue reading →

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March 8, 2023 · 8:32 pm

The Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist 2023

Women’s Prize for Fiction 2023 LonglistThe Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist for 2023 was announced yesterday. The 16 titles are:

Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo
Homesick by Jennifer Croft
Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks
Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova
Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh
The Dog of the North by Elizabeth McKenzie
Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel
Pod by Laline Paull 
Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
Memphis by Tara M Stringfellow

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July 28, 2022 · 6:47 pm

The Booker Prize 2022 Longlist

Booker Prize 2022 LonglistThe Booker Prize longlist was announced on Tuesday. The 13 titles are:

Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo
Trust by Hernan Diaz
The Trees by Percival Everett
Booth by Karen Joy Fowler
Treacle Walker by Alan Garner
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shahan Karunatilaka
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet
The Colony by Audrey Magee
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer
Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
After Sappho by Selby Lynn Schwartz
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

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July 23, 2022 · 10:33 am

The Booker Prize 2022: Predictions, Possibilities and Preferences

Booker Prize 2022The 2022 Booker Prize longlist will be announced on Tuesday 26th July and I have made my annual list of predictions in terms of what I think could be some strong possibilities alongside my own personal preferences, based on a few novels I have read and others I have heard about. As ever, it’s impossible to know which novels have been submitted for consideration but those published in the UK between 1 October 2021 and 30 September 2022 will be eligible. My longlist predictions lists in 2020 and 2021 included the eventual winners in those years: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart and The Promise by Damon Galgut. The question is, can I make it three years in a row…?

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March 10, 2022 · 7:57 pm

The Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist 2022

The Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist 2022
The Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist for 2022 was announced on Tuesday. The 16 titles are:

The Bread the Devil Knead by Lisa Allen-Agostini
Salt Lick by Lulu Allison
Careless by Kirsty Capes
Remote Sympathy by Catherine Chidgey
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
Flamingo by Rachel Elliott
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson
The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
This One Sky Day by Leone Ross
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton
Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejidé

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January 23, 2022 · 2:15 pm

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe and Fall by John Preston

Empire of Pain Patrick Radden KeefeEmpire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe won the Baillie Giffard Prize for Non-Fiction last year and examines the history of three generations of the Sackler family. Radden Keefe is a journalist for the New Yorker and ‘Empire of Pain’ was developed from his 2017 article about the Sacklers. The Sackler name is mostly associated with philanthropy. Several universities, museums and galleries have wings named after the family in recognition of the substantial donations they have made towards the arts and sciences. However, the Sacklers’ role in the development of the highly addictive drug OxyContin in 1996 and the subsequent opioid crisis in the United States has only recently become subject to proper scrutiny.

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January 8, 2022 · 1:02 pm

My Most Anticipated Books of 2022

To Paradise Hanya YanagiharaYoung Mungo Douglas StuartLove Marriage Monica AliNotes on an Execution Danya Kukafka

 

 

 

 

My list of most anticipated books coming soon in 2022 is growing by the day, so here are some of the highlights. All publication dates where known apply to the United Kingdom only.

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara is out this month and spans an alternative version of New York in 1893, 1993 and 2093. I’ve heard nothing but positive reviews so far, even from those who didn’t get on with her second novel A Little Life. I expect it will appear on several predictions lists for the Booker Prize later this year, along with Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart which is out in April, after the Scottish author’s debut novel Shuggie Bain won the Prize in 2020. Continue reading →

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October 29, 2021 · 7:32 pm

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo and Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Girl Woman Other Bernardine EvaristoGirl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo was the joint winner of the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside The Testaments by Margaret Atwood which I read earlier this year. It follows the lives of 12 characters, mostly black British women, spanning several decades in four overlapping clusters. In the first part, we are introduced to Amma, a theatre director, her daughter Yazz, and Dominique who is Amma’s former partner in the theatre group. Then there is Carole who works in banking, her mother Bummi and her school friend La Tisha. Shirley is a teacher whose mother Winsome is retired in Barbados and has worked with her colleague Penelope for several years. Finally, Megan/Morgan is a non-binary social media influencer, whose relatives Hattie and Grace were based in the north of England in the early 20th century.
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July 29, 2021 · 6:14 pm

The Booker Prize 2021 Longlist

Booker Prize 2021 Longlist
The Booker Prize longlist was announced on Tuesday. The 13 titles are:

A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam 
Second Place by Rachel Cusk
The Promise by Damon Galgut
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
An Island by Karen Jennings
A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson
No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
China Room by Sunjeev Sahota
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford
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July 25, 2021 · 12:24 pm

The Booker Prize 2021: Predictions, Possibilities and Preferences

It’s that time of year again – the 2021 Booker Prize longlist will be announced on Tuesday 27th July and I have made a list of predictions in terms of what I think could be some strong possibilities alongside my own personal preferences, based on a few eligible books I have read in recent months, as well as several that I haven’t. As ever, it’s impossible to know which novels have been submitted for consideration. Last year, for the first time since I started writing these posts, my longlist predictions list included the eventual winner Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, so my first prediction is that it is highly unlikely I will repeat this trick for a second year in a row….

Klara and the Sun Kazuo IshiguroSecond Place Rachel CuskThe Promise Damon Galgut

 

 

 

 

 

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