Man booker prize archive#

In 1989, the literary world expressed surprise when Martin Amis’ 'London Fields' was not included on the Booker shortlist. See the transcript of Chair of Judges, Fay Weldon's speech.

Man booker prize archive#

The Archive has a transcript of the speech in full for those who would like to see how it ended. And the head of the publishing union came over and hit my agent. And so because you are reading it, you don't know where you are, so I just sat down and said, 'That is really all I have to say.' So they didn't get that bit. Well, usually in a speech like that, you say all of that first, and then in the last bit you say, 'But of course none of this applies to any of you here, who are all honourable, honourable people.' But, oddly enough, the unions, who I was supporting vigorously, were on a work to rule, and cut the power at 10 o'clock, and the boards went black, just before I got to the 'you are all honourable men' bit. It was highly critical of the publishing industry and as Fay recalls, in an interview with the Sunday Herald, she was 'making this anti-publisher speech and calling them to order. In 1983 Chair of Judges Fay Weldon used an autocue to give her speech at the award ceremony. Research impact (staff and students only) Knowledge exchange (staff and students only) Policies and codes of practice (staff and students only) Research ethics (staff and students only) Research integrity and responsible metrics Why international students choose Oxford Brookes