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Sarah Waters up against the bookies' favourite Hilary Mantel
By: John Howard
Satah Waters
Satah Waters
Lesbian author Sarah Waters on Booker Prize shortlist
The lesbian author Sarah Waters is one of the six novelists on the Booker Prize shortlist, it has been announced.
Her novel The Little Stranger, a spooky tale that unfolds in 1940s England, is up against contenders from Adam Foulds, Simon Mawer, A.S. Byatt, Hilary Mantel and JM Coetzee.
The winner will beannounced at London's Guildhall on October 6.
Waters has been shortlisted twice before, for Fingersmith and The Night Watch, and this time she faces the bookies’ favourite, Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, a historical novel set during the reign of Henry VIII.
Waters has been shortlisted twice before, for Fingersmith and The Night Watch, and this time she faces the bookies’ favourite, Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, a historical novel set during the reign of Henry VIII.
Bookmaker William Hill placed Mantel at 4/5 favourite for the prize, well ahead of the rest of the field.
Other leading contenders for the £50,000 prize are Byatt's Edwardian family saga The Children's Book and Coetzee's semi-autobiographical Summertime. Foulds's The Quickening Maze is an account of the madness of 19th century poet John Clare, and Simon Mawer's The Glass Room is the story of a Jewish family set during the rise of Nazism.
Journalist James Naughtie, who is chairing the judging panel, said: "We're thrilled to be able to announce such a strong shortlist, so enticing that it will certainly give us a headache when we come to select the winner.
Other leading contenders for the £50,000 prize are Byatt's Edwardian family saga The Children's Book and Coetzee's semi-autobiographical Summertime. Foulds's The Quickening Maze is an account of the madness of 19th century poet John Clare, and Simon Mawer's The Glass Room is the story of a Jewish family set during the rise of Nazism.
Journalist James Naughtie, who is chairing the judging panel, said: "We're thrilled to be able to announce such a strong shortlist, so enticing that it will certainly give us a headache when we come to select the winner.
“The choice will be a difficult one. There is thundering narrative, great inventiveness, poetry and sharp human insight in abundance."
The other judges on the panel are Michael Prodger, literary editor of the Sunday Telegraph, the biographer and critic Lucasta Miller, comedian and broadcaster Sue Perkins, and the academic and journalist Professor John Mullan.
