Tower and Town, October 2018

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The Marlborough Booker

The Man Booker prize is surely the most famous literary prize around - but which is the best of all the Booker winning books?

This year is the 50th anniversary of the prestigious prize and so we decided to celebrate by holding a light-hearted panel event at the end of this year’s LitFest to choose ‘The Marlborough Booker’. The panel of literature-loving locals have picked their favourite Booker winning novels and will define, debate and defend their choice before the audience votes on the ultimate winner.

To date our panellists and their nominations are:

Debby Guest of the White Horse Bookshop is choosing Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively.

Philip Cayford QC, a longtime supporter of the LitFest, who has selected Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

David Roth-Ey, Editor at Forth Estate who has decided on a book from his own stable (but in my opinion a very strong runner), Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.

Hugo Tinley, English master at Marlborough College who has chosen Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Whether you’ve read them all or not, join us on Sunday 30th at 6.30pm in the Town Hall and enjoy a free glass of wine during what is bound to be a fascinating and entertaining debate - let’s see what ‘The Marlborough Booker’ will be!

The Nominations

Moon Tiger - has been described as one of the best Booker winners ever - superficially a love story it is stylistically challenging, very inventive, and superbly emotive. 

Life of Pi - A strange and wonderful story of a boy who has to make his way across the ocean in a small boat with a large tiger after being shipwrecked. A novel full of mysticism and spirituality. 

Wolf Hall - This is a beautifully evocative and poetic book, underpinned by a huge amount of scholarly research, about the rise of Thomas Cromwell at the court of Henry VIII.

Remains of the Day - Another evocative and delicate story told from the point of view of Stephens, an aging butler with thwarted ambitions of love. Loss, memory, class and self-deception are all explored.