What’s all this then?
It’s a good old blog, started in one of the lockdowns in late 2020, with the intention of documenting my attempts to read every book that won the Booker Prize.

That task completed (you can find my full ranking here), and subsequently followed up by reading all of the Women’s Prize for Fiction winners (ranking to follow) I’m now keeping the thing going, generally focusing on the shortlists for those two prizes, plus anything else that catches my attention.

What’s the Booker Prize?
In simple terms, a prize awarded in the UK for the best novel of the year. At present, the criteria is that it’s for the best book originally published in the English language. Previously, it had stricter criteria, largely aimed at excluding American authors (don’t @ me).

Why are you doing this?
Because I wanted to give myself a bit of discipline around reading and writing.

Why the Booker though? Isn’t it a bit problematic?
Yes, in several ways. More on that as we go through it. In simple terms though, I’m from the UK and it’s our “foremost literary prize” (apparently) so I thought it might be an interesting way of exploring the last 50-odd years of writing and culture.

Who are you?
My name is Martin, and I live in London and work on the business side of the music industry. I’m not by any means a literature expert, though I did study English Lit at uni. That was a while ago. Now I’m writing through the eyes of a (now) 40-something “average reader”, if there is such a thing.

If you want to know more about me and this blog, you can check out this piece I wrote for the Booker website.  I can also occasionally be found waffling about the same sorts of things as a guest (usually on the Prize-based episodes) on the excellent Book Club Review Podcast.

Why should I care?
You probably shouldn’t. But if you’d like to get involved, it would be great if my posts could be the starting point for debate or discussion. I’d love to hear other people’s opinions on the winners they’ve enjoyed or are currently reading.

What’s the ranking / scoring based on?
Purely personal opinion, based on how much I enjoy each novel. I make no claims to objective or authoritative scoring. Your opinion is as valid (if not more so) than mine.

Disclaimer: this is a personal blog and is in no way affiliated with the Booker Prizes or the Booker Prize Foundation.