Judging the Booker prize: honour or onus?
A few weeks ago, I attended a wonderful evening at the Royal Festival Hall: the announcement of the 2025 Booker Prize Shortlist. I was surprised to learn that it was the first ever such event but I can’t imagine it will be the last, given how much joy it seemed to bring both the audience and the judges themselves.
Chaired by the formidable Gaby Wood, Booker Prize Foundation Chief Executive, the panel was comprised of this year’s Booker Prize judges, who shared thrilling insights into their experiences of reading for the prize, as well as announcing and then discussing the shortlisted novels. I couldn’t believe that they have to read 153 books in less than a year, which I think would be difficult enough without also having to determine whether they were worthy of such a prestigious award!
The judges themselves (Roddy Doyle, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kiley Reid, Ayòbámi Adébáyò and Chris Power) were all wonderful, sharing their excitement at the arrival of huge parcels of books, as well as the difficulty of getting through enough titles before their catch-ups over treats at Fortnum & Mason every few months. These meetings sounded to have been dramatic, with each judge passionately championing the books that they loved and dismissing those they struggled to enjoy. The judges also explained the traffic-light system that they used to RAG-rate the books as they read them. These ratings were then collated into a spreadsheet and sent out before each meeting, so if you had rated a book “green”, but it had received four other “reds”, you would know in advance that you would have a fight on your hands!
Sarah Jessica Parker, whose love of literature and involvement in publishing was completely unknown to me, was openly nervous yet her desire to do justice to both the books and the occasion was endearing and she spoke wonderfully about the different texts. Kiley Reid’s exacting and at times cutting comments were balanced perfectly by the wholesome spirit of Ayòbámi Adébáyò, whose debut novel Stay With Me I absolutely adore. The star of the evening for me had to be 1993 Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle, whose warmth and wit managed to draw together everyone’s disparate feelings and perspectives, whilst offering thoughtful and critical commentary on each of the texts.
Throughout the event, actors Louise Brealey (from Sherlock) and Alfred Enoch (Dean from Harry Potter!) performed readings of the shortlisted books, as well as some hilarious letters from the Booker Prize Foundation archives, including one dramatic resignation letter, on account of the arduous challenge of reading all the books! Another detailed one judge’s cutting response of “IN” or “OUT” to each book, perhaps an early precursor to the traffic-light system!
I am currently reading The Rest of Our Lives and my book club have chosen to read The Land in Winter next, both shortlisted, so I am looking forward to continuing the spirit of the evening. It was a celebration of both the power of creativity and the warmth of literature: a true joy.