Back in 1971, the Man Booker Prize was just two years old. P.H. Newby and Bernice Rubens had won the first two, but in the build up to the third prize the rules were changed and as a result a long list of 22 novels never saw the light of the award. Now, forty years on, the Man Booker Prize will award the best omitted novel of 1970 retrospectively.
The new rules meant that the prize was no longer awarded retrospectively and changed to become an award for the best novel for the year of publication instead. Combined with the fact that the date of the award changed from April to November, what was left was a a gap of ineligibility for many great novels in 1971.
In the 22 novel long list mix for the lost Man Booker Prize of 1971, are books by Iris Murdoch, Melvyn Bragg, Ruth Rendell and Joe Orton. The long list has now been cut down to the final six and the winner will be announced on 19th May 2010 now that the public vote is closed.
The six titles shortlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize are:
– Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault (Arrow)
-The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark (Penguin)
– The Vivisector by Patrick White (Vintage)
– The Birds on the Trees by Nina Bawden (Virago)
– Troubles by J G Farrell (Phoenix House)
– The Bay of Noon by Shirley Hazzard (Virago)
Visit The Man Booker Prize 2010 to find out who won the Lost Man Booker Prize for 1970.
