The Man Booker Prize for Fiction

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, also known in short as the Booker Prize, is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of either the Commonwealth of Nations or the Republic of Ireland.

 The winner of the Booker Prize will generally be assured of international renown and success. It is also a mark of distinction for authors to be nominated for the Booker longlist or selected for inclusion in the shortlist. In 1993, the Booker of Bookers Prize was awarded to Salman Rushdie for Midnight's Children (the 1981 winner), as the best novel to win the award in the first 25 years of its existence.

 History

 The prize was originally known as the Booker-McConnell Prize after the company Booker-McConnell began sponsoring the event in 1968, and became commonly known as the "Booker Prize" or simply "the Booker". When administration of the prize was transferred to the Booker Prize Foundation in 2002, the title sponsor became the investment company Man Group, which opted to retain "Booker" as part of the official title of the prize. The prize money awarded with the Booker Prize was originally £21,000, and was subsequently raised to £50,000 in 2002 under the sponsorship of the Man Group.

 Judging

The selection process for the winner of the prize commences with the formation of an advisory committee which includes an author, two publishers, a literary agent, a bookseller, a librarian, and a chairperson appointed by the Booker Prize Foundation. The advisory committee then selects the judging panel, the membership of which changes each year, although on rare occasions a judge may be selected a second time.

To maintain the consistent excellence of the prize, judges are selected from amongst leading literary critics, writers, academics and notable public figures.

Previous Winners

2006: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss

2005: John Banville, The Sea

2004: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty

2003: DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little

2002: Yann Martel, Life of Pi

Booker Facts and Statistics

• Each publisher's imprint may submit two titles. In addition, previous winners of the Prize and those who have been shortlisted in the previous ten years are automatically considered. Books may also be 'called in': publishers can make written representations to the judges to consider titles in addition to those already entered. In the twenty-first century the average number of books considered by the judges has been approximately 130.

• The list of books making the longlist was first released in 2001. In 2003 there were 23 books on the longlist, in 2002 there were 20 and in 2001 there were 24.

• For the first 35 years of the Booker there were only five years when fewer than six books were on the shortlist, and two years (1980 and 1981) when there were seven on the shortlist.