The Manbooker Prize 2009

Hilary Mantel was named the winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for 'Wolf Hall', published by Fourth Estate on the Tuesday 6th October.

James Naughtie, Chair of the judges, made the announcement, which was broadcast by the BBC from the awards dinner at London’s Guildhall. Peter Clarke, Chief Executive of Man Group plc, presented Hilary Mantel with a cheque for £50,000.

Wolf Hall has been the bookies’ favourite since the longlist was announced in July, with William Hill taking over 90% of all Man Booker Prize bets on her book.
 
Wolf Hall was picked from a shortlist of heavy hitting literary authors including Sarah Waters, A.S. Byatt and J.M. Coetzee – who would have been the first person to win the prize three times. Hilary Mantel was herself a judge for the prize in 1990 when A.S. Byatt’s Possession won.

Wolf Hall is set in the 1520s and tells the story of Thomas Cromwell's rise to prominence in the Tudor court.  Hilary Mantel has been praised by critics for writing ‘a rich, absorbingly readable historical novel; she has made a significant shift in the way any of her readers interested in English history will henceforward think about Thomas Cromwell.’ (The Spectator)

This is the first time the publisher Fourth Estate has had a Man Booker Prize winner. They have previously published three shortlisted books – Nicola Barker’s Darkmans (2007) and Carol Shields’ novels Unless (2002) and The Stone Diaries (1993).

Hilary Mantel spent five years writing Wolf Hall and she is currently working on a sequel.

The judging panel for the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction was: broadcaster and author James Naughtie (Chair); Lucasta Miller, biographer and critic; Michael Prodger, Literary Editor of The Sunday Telegraph; Professor John Mullan, academic and author and Sue Perkins, comedian and broadcaster.

The Nominees for the Manbooker Prize 2009

(Winner in red)

                        
A.S. Byatt    
The Children's Book       
Random House, Chatto and Windus

J.M. Coetzee
Summertime           
Random House, Harvill Secker

Adam Foulds       
The Quickening Maze       
Random House, Jonathan Cape

Hilary Mantel       
Wolf Hall           
HarperCollins, Fourth Estate

Simon Mawer
The Glass Room       
Hachette, Little, Brown

Sarah Waters       
The Little Stranger       
Hachette, Little, Brown, Virago