Loggia exhibition November 2018

Somerville and the Booker Prize

The Booker prize, which launched in 1969, aims to promote the finest in fiction by rewarding the best novel of the year written in English and published in the United Kingdom. To maintain the consistent excellence of The Man Booker Prize, judges are chosen from a wide range of disciplines, including critics, writers and academics, but also poets, politicians and actors, all with a passion for quality fiction.

The winner of The Man Booker Prize receives £50,000 and, like all the shortlisted authors, a cheque for £2,500 and a designer bound copy of their book. Fulfilling one of the objectives of the prize – to encourage the widest possible readership for the best in literary fiction – the winner and the shortlisted authors now enjoy a dramatic increase in book sales worldwide.

This year’s Booker Prize went to Anna Burns for Milkman, but also shortlisted, and the youngest ever to be so, was Somervillian Daisy Johnson for Everything under (published by Jonathan Cape); this is Daisy’s second book, the first being a collection of short stories called Fen (Jonathan Cape, 2016).

Daisy studied Creative Writing at Somerville in 2012, and an interview with her can be found on the college website (Daisy Johnson interview)

Everything under is the 17th novel by a Somervillian to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and of those 3 have gone on to win the prize: Iris Murdoch’s The sea, the sea (1978), Penelope Fitzgerald’s Offshore (1979) and A.S. Byatt’s Possession (1990).

To celebrate (in a small fashion!) the number of Somervillian authors shortlisted for the award, the Library held a brief exhibition of the books that have been shortlisted (see below)

A total of seven Somervillians have been shortlisted: Iris Murdoch (six times), Nina Bawden (twice), Penelope Fitzgerald (four times), Ann Schlee, A.S. Byatt (twice), Michèle Roberts and Daisy Johnson. In addition all of the above (apart from Murdoch and Johnson) have judged the competition, as well as fellow Somervillians Hilary Spurling, Margaret Forster, Maggie Gee and Victoria Glendinning (who was head of the judging panel in 1992, although sadly didn’t award it to Michèle Roberts!)

Iris Murdoch

Iris Murdoch read Classics from 1938-42 (she was an Exhibitioner and took a first), and on top of winning the Booker in 1978 for The sea, the sea, she was shortlisted in 1969 (The nice and the good), ’70 (Bruno’s dream), ’73 (The black prince), ’85 (The good apprentice) and ’87 (The book and the brotherhood)

The copy of The sea, the sea on display was given and inscribed to close friend Philippa Foot, who was a student at Somerville at the same time as Murdoch, and with whom she shared a flat during the war. Foot was Tutor and Fellow of Somerville from 1947 and was portrayed by Murdoch in The nice and the good, as the character Paula.

Nina Bawden

Nina Bawden studied PPE at Somerville from 1943-46 and has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize – in 1987 for Circles of deceit, and for 1970’s “Lost Booker” (for The birds on the tree), a prize retrospectively awarded in 2010, as the Booker had to that point been awarded for books published the previous year, but was changed to books published in the same year as the award in 1970, meaning that a number of authors had missed out. She was also on the judging panel in 1985, but didn’t award the prize to fellow Somervillian Iris Murdoch!

Penelope Fitzgerald

Penelope Fitzgerald took a first in English in 1938, having been a College and Senior Scholar, and was the surprise (to some) winner of the 1979 Booker, for her book Offshore – indeed her publisher would go on to say that response to her win was “so unpleasant a demonstration of naked spite”. Her win followed on from a nomination in 1978 for The bookshop, which was beaten to the prize by Iris Murdoch’s The sea, the sea, and she was further recognized for The beginning of spring (1988) and The gate of angels (1990). Fitzgerald also judged the award in 1991 and 1998.

Ann Schlee

Ann Schlee was Florence Hughes Scholar at Somerville, reading English from 1952-55, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Rhine journey in 1981. Having also been on the judging panel alongside Penelope Fitzgerald in 1991, Schlee was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997.

A.S. Byatt

Having taken a B.Litt. at Somerville in 1958-59, A.S. Byatt has been shortlisted twice for the Booker Prize – in 2009 for The children’s book, and winning in 1990 for Possession. Having been the first Somervillian to sit on the panel of judges in 1974, she is also Somerville’s most recent winner (and indeed nominee until this year!) of the prestigious award; Possession was adapted for cinema in 2002.

Michèle Roberts

Like Penelope Fitzgerald and Ann Schlee, Michèle Roberts read English at Somerville (1967-70), and like them she judged the Booker (in 2001). Her book Daughters of the house was shortlisted for the prize in 1992 (making it 6 nominations in 5 years for Somervillian authors), and is a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, having turned down an OBE on account of her republican sentiments.

Daisy Johnson

This year Daisy Johnson (Mst Creative Writing, 2012), has become the youngest author ever to be shortlisted, for her debut novel Everything under. (Pictured talking about her Booker nomination at Blackwells in October 2018) (See beginning of post for more info)