2012 Man Booker Prize

The 2012 Booker Prize for Fiction was awarded on 16 October 2012. A longlist of twelve titles was announced on 25 July, and these were narrowed down to a shortlist of six titles, announced on 11 September. The jury was chaired by Sir Peter Stothard, editor of the Times Literary Supplement, accompanied by literary critics Dinah Birch and Bharat Tandon, historian and biographer Amanda Foreman, and Dan Stevens, actor of Downton Abbey fame with a background English Literature studies. The jury was faced with the controversy of the 2011 jury, whose approach had been seen as overly populist. Whether or not as a response to this, the 2012 jury strongly emphasised the value of literary quality and linguistic innovation as criteria for inclusion.

The winner was Hilary Mantel, an early favourite, for her book Bring Up the Bodies, the sequel to her novel Wolf Hall, which won the award in 2009. Mantel became the first woman, and the first Briton, to win the prize twice. A strong challenger to Mantel was established writer Will Self, who was nominated for the first time. Other shortlisters included second-time nominee Tan Twan Eng, Deborah Levy, who returned from a long hiatus of publishing, and novelist débutantes Alison Moore and Jeet Thayil. In the days and weeks leading up to the announcement of the winner, both media commentators and bookmakers considered Mantel and Self favourites to win, with the other four nominees ranked as outsiders.

2013 Man Booker Prize

The 2013 Booker Prize for Fiction was awarded on 15 October 2013 to Eleanor Catton for her novel The Luminaries. A longlist of thirteen titles was announced on 23 July, and these were narrowed down to a shortlist of six titles, announced on 10 September. The jury was chaired by Robert Macfarlane, who was joined by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Natalie Haynes, Martha Kearney, and Stuart Kelly. The shortlist contained great geographical and ethnic diversity, with Zimbabwean-born NoViolet Bulawayo, Eleanor Catton of New Zealand, Jim Crace from England, Indian American Jhumpa Lahiri, Canadian-American Ruth Ozeki and Colm Tóibín of Ireland.

Judging panel

On 21 November 2012, it was announced that Robert Macfarlane would chair the panel of judges that would decide the winner of the 2013 award. Macfarlane declared that he felt "very proud indeed to be chairing this prize, which has done so much to shape the modern literary landscape." On 17 December, he was joined by four other judges: biographer and critic Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, writer and broadcaster Natalie Haynes, journalist Martha Kearney, and writer, critic and reviewer Stuart Kelly. "Part of the reason the prize is heralded internationally", the announcement read, "is because the judges stand as a guarantee of literary weight and seriousness of intent." The judges' backgrounds – as academics, professional writers and journalists – were emphasized as essential to their role as reviewers. "We are all looking forward to the 10 months, 140 novels and many meetings and conversations that lie ahead of us," Macfarlane said, "as we search for the very best of contemporary fiction."

2014 Man Booker Prize

The 2014 Man Booker Prize for fiction was awarded at a ceremony on 14 October 2014. Until 2014, only novels written in English and from authors in the Commonwealth, including the UK, the Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe were eligible for consideration; however from 2014 rules were changed to extend eligibility to any novel written in English. It is therefore the first time in the award's history that authors from the United States of America have been included.

Judging panel

The panel of judges is chaired by A. C. Grayling and comprises Jonathan Bate, Sarah Churchwell, Daniel Glaser, Alastair Niven and Erica Wagner.

Nominees

Longlist

A longlist of thirteen titles was announced on 23 July 2014.

Shortlist

The shortlist of six novels was announced on 9 September 2014. It was composed of:

Winner

On 14 October, chair judge A. C. Grayling announced that Australian author Richard Flanagan had won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for his book The Narrow Road to the Deep North. The judges spent three hours deliberating before announcing the winner. Grayling described the historical novel as a "remarkable love story as well as a story about human suffering and comradeship".

Man Booker Prize

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction (formerly known as the Booker-McConnell Prize and commonly known simply as the Booker Prize) is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original novel, written in the English language, and published in the UK. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and success; therefore, the prize is of great significance for the book trade. From its inception, only Commonwealth, Irish, and Zimbabwean citizens were eligible to receive the prize; in 2013, however, this eligibility was widened to any English language novel.

The Booker Prize is greeted with great anticipation and fanfare. It is also a mark of distinction for authors to be selected for inclusion in the shortlist or even to be nominated for the "longlist".

History and administration

The prize was originally known as the Booker-McConnell Prize, after the company Booker-McConnell began sponsoring the event in 1968; it 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 foundation is an independent registered charity funded by the entire profits of Booker Prize Trading Ltd, of which it is the sole shareholder. 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, making it one of the world's richest literary prizes.