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2025

  • Adrian Tinniswood: Noble Ambitions
  • Adrian Tinniswood: The Power and the Glory
  • Martin Williams: The King is Dead, Long Live the King
  • Gavin Plumley: A Home for all Seasons
  • Robert Harris: Precipice
  • Nigel Slater: A Thousand Feasts
  • Joan Aiken: Tales of London Town
  • Alan Connor: 188 Words for Rain
  • Ben Robinson: English Villages: An Extraordinary Journey through Time

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Juxtabook

"Mantel does not need a second Booker," - what a bizarre view point in that article!

LizF

Grr just the sort of article to confirm the prejudices of those people who somehow think that reading books is elitist!
I have no idea who the author is but as a mere middlebrow reader, i would have thought that the best way to invigorate the books world is with books like Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies - ones that 'ordinary' people will read and which will hopefully encourage them to read more authors who manage to combine literary merit and readability and don't regard the latter to be a dirty word.
PS I would advise reading The Greatcoat with the lights on (it had to be lunchtime reading at the office for me!) but I am sure that you wil enjoy it.

Cornflower

It's wrong-headed and poorly argued.

Cornflower

Thankyou for the tip about The Greatcoat!
Re. the article, it makes no mention of the fact that Hilary Mantel's work has done much to raise the status of historical fiction (an often underrated genre and one at which the writer of the article appears to sneer), and that the publicity her winning for a second time has brought to the prize is a good thing for the book trade as a whole.

Mystica Varathapalan

Merit definitely! anything else is ridiculous.

P S I do not know why but find it difficult to post comments!

Cornflower

So sorry you're having difficulty with comments, Mystica - I'll see if there's anything I can do to improve matters.

Mary

After reading your Oxford crime post (which I shamelessly borrowed for my own blog) I got the four Caudwell books with Gory illustrations on the covers. Delightful.

Cornflower

So glad to know the books are good, Mary (and delighted to have posted material worth spreading!)

Barbara

Just read the article and what I most disagree with is the suggestion that last year's award to Julian Barnes was 'a lifetime achievement award'. I thought A Sense of an Ending was brilliant. But then, we hate clever men in this country. If we didn't, Will Self would have won this year.

The Willoughby Book Club

Completely agree - ultimately Mantel won because the judges deemed her book most worthy of the prize. The fact that she's won before isn't important - in fact, I'm really pleased the judges didn't bow to the pressure of awarding a 'first time' winner...

Another great post, thanks Karen

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