:00:28. > :00:30.the UK, behind it should turn a lot clearer. That is it. Hello and
:00:31. > :00:35.welcome to the magnificent Guildhall in the city of London where we await
:00:36. > :00:40.the announcement of the winner of one of the worlds leading literary
:00:41. > :00:47.prizes, the Man Booker. It has been quite a journey to get to this
:00:48. > :00:52.point. 151 books were whittled down to a short list of six and tonight
:00:53. > :01:05.there will just be one book, one winner. All six of the short listed
:01:06. > :01:11.authors are here tonight. It must be nerve wracking to hear whether you
:01:12. > :01:18.have one. It is a landmark moment for the price. After 45 years, the
:01:19. > :01:23.rules are changing. From next year, anyone writing a novel in English
:01:24. > :01:27.anywhere in the world will be eligible and that means the
:01:28. > :01:32.Americans are coming. For the first time we have a royal guest, her
:01:33. > :01:37.Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall will be here and she will
:01:38. > :01:42.present the trophy to the winner. To help guide us through the
:01:43. > :01:54.proceedings I am joined by two guess, so Peter Studdard and Gaby
:01:55. > :01:59.Wood. Thank you both for being with us. Really looking forward to
:02:00. > :02:06.talking to you, but before we do, let's remind ourselves who is on
:02:07. > :02:10.this year's short list. We need new names by NoViolet
:02:11. > :02:44.Bulawayo you. A very diverse short list both in
:02:45. > :02:49.terms of the subjects covered but also the nationalities and
:02:50. > :02:55.backgrounds of the authors. Peter, is it a strong year, do you think?
:02:56. > :03:04.It is a wonderful tribute to the hand of a book in Iraq. This is a
:03:05. > :03:09.Commonwealth prize with an amazing range of prose in different styles
:03:10. > :03:19.and next year the Americans will be there. The old Booker Prize has
:03:20. > :03:24.shown some of the best of what it can offer. You have written this
:03:25. > :03:35.short list are brought a tear to your eye. Was that joy or sorrow? I
:03:36. > :03:41.found it incredibly invigorating! Including the global span of the
:03:42. > :03:51.authors. Let's talk in details about each of the books. Let's talk about
:03:52. > :03:56.Jim Crace's book. This is a book about dispossessed peasants forced
:03:57. > :04:02.from their homes as changes sweep across the English countryside. Is
:04:03. > :04:09.he a deserved favourite? Yes, it is also said it will be his last book.
:04:10. > :04:15.That is always a good move! What did you think of the book? It was
:04:16. > :04:25.excellent. It seems to be said in the 16th century but also it spans a
:04:26. > :04:33.lot more time and the nature of dispossession is his real interest.
:04:34. > :04:38.More modern versions of that are our relationship to the lands, approach
:04:39. > :04:46.patients, deaths. The other established writer on the short
:04:47. > :04:49.lists is comatose bin. This is the first time he has been short list.
:04:50. > :05:00.`` comb the most raking thing is its
:05:01. > :05:08.length, it is only 101 pages. Should it be longer? Know, if you are
:05:09. > :05:17.writing about the virgin Mary you can rely on the fact that people
:05:18. > :05:22.know about the back story. He is such an extraordinary prose writer.
:05:23. > :05:29.Every word he uses, there are five words behind it. He is the virtuoso
:05:30. > :05:39.of prose. He is the greatest writer in this hall. This is a virtuoso
:05:40. > :05:48.performance. The virtuosity, subversives those are powerful
:05:49. > :05:56.elements in a Man Booker book. He got the biggest cheer when he came
:05:57. > :06:05.up tonight. He did. Gaby, the other extreme is a Eleanor Catton's book
:06:06. > :06:10.which is 832 pages. This is a Victorian murder mystery set during
:06:11. > :06:14.the gold rush in New Zealand and the obvious question is is it worth its
:06:15. > :06:24.length? Is it worth reading it at that length? It certainly is worth
:06:25. > :06:32.it. It is a gripping read, you do not notice it is 832 pages long and
:06:33. > :06:35.also it is packaged in this experimental framework which
:06:36. > :06:47.disappears as soon as you start. There was something misleading when
:06:48. > :06:53.you call it an experimental novel. I think if this were to win it would
:06:54. > :07:01.be the boldest move. What about NoViolet Bulawayo. She would be the
:07:02. > :07:07.first black African woman to win. It is the story of a ten`year`old girl
:07:08. > :07:17.who grows up in a shantytown in Zimbabwe who then moves to America.
:07:18. > :07:28.I love the first part of the book. Eleanor Catton is a miracle of...
:07:29. > :07:32.NoViolet Bulawayo is more observation of what you see in front
:07:33. > :07:39.of you and the first 30 pages and the way she uses names to grip
:07:40. > :07:47.reality and when the reality changes she changes the names. They use
:07:48. > :07:55.names from American TV shows, American magazines and that is
:07:56. > :08:03.something Zimbabweans do. It is accurately observed, very vivid but
:08:04. > :08:22.it is nothing like the art of Eleanor Catton's book. What about
:08:23. > :08:27.Jhumpa Lahiri's book? Did you enjoy that book? I did. It is fascinating
:08:28. > :08:34.on her part to have written a book with such a span over time when she
:08:35. > :08:40.started out and continues to be a short story writer of incredible
:08:41. > :08:48.precision and beauty. And finally Ruth Ozeki's tale which intertwines
:08:49. > :08:54.the tale of two women, a Canadian writer who finds a diary washed up
:08:55. > :09:01.on a beach which was written by a teenager in Tokyo. The opening part
:09:02. > :09:09.of that is wonderful. Fiction is all about voices and those are two great
:09:10. > :09:12.ones. The adult voice is less secure for me and the intellectual
:09:13. > :09:19.underpinning was a lot more frail but then I am not a Zen Buddhist and
:09:20. > :09:24.she is. As I said, there is a special guest here this evening, the
:09:25. > :09:28.Duchess of Cornwall and she got up and made a speech earlier on. She
:09:29. > :09:32.described herself as a passionate reader and she talked about a
:09:33. > :09:38.literacy project in Middlesbrough which is run by the Booker Prize
:09:39. > :09:45.foundation. As patron of the National literacy trust, I visited
:09:46. > :09:52.the UK's first literacy action hub in Middlesbrough. An area wearing
:09:53. > :09:55.the brunt of the economic decline. This ground`breaking project is
:09:56. > :10:01.addressing some of the worst literacy problems in the country by
:10:02. > :10:05.bringing people together from all parts of the community, including
:10:06. > :10:09.local government, business and charities to create a major campaign
:10:10. > :10:14.to get Middlesbrough reading. The project already has had a huge
:10:15. > :10:18.impact and its success would not have been possible without the vital
:10:19. > :10:28.funding from the Booker Prize foundation. Before the dinner that
:10:29. > :10:32.is taking place behind me, there is a champagne reception for the 500
:10:33. > :10:36.guests here and we caught up with some of them to find out what they
:10:37. > :10:43.think of this year's short list and who they think will win. I would
:10:44. > :10:51.think in this case Ruth Ozeki. Simply because the one thing about
:10:52. > :11:01.her book is it heralds the advent of a fantastic writer. She will win it.
:11:02. > :11:21.I don't have the slightest doubt. They're right two writers on this
:11:22. > :11:40.list, Tim Krays `` Jim Crace and Colm Toibin. Either one of them I
:11:41. > :11:47.would like to see win this prize. If you feel hungry for a sequel, that
:11:48. > :11:51.is the mark of a good book. The views of some of the guests who are
:11:52. > :11:56.here with us this evening. We're waiting for the formal part of the
:11:57. > :12:01.evening to start, so while we do wait I will put you both on the
:12:02. > :12:15.spot. Gaby, who do you think will win? Colm Toibin or Eleanor Catton.
:12:16. > :12:22.Eleanor Catton or NoViolet Bulawayo. We shall see if you are right. I
:12:23. > :12:25.will now hand you over to the chairman of the judges, Robert
:12:26. > :12:33.Macfarlane. Good evening to you all. Ladies and gentlemen, feedback,
:12:34. > :12:39.forgive me. It has been a long path to this point. We began our work in
:12:40. > :12:50.November last year. It took us nine months to read 151 novels. I am a
:12:51. > :12:55.walker, fond of walking and so I am also fond of quantifying tasks in
:12:56. > :13:02.terms of distance so my maths tells me we read around 20 kilometres of
:13:03. > :13:14.prose as measured in 12 point gap bond. It was an exhausting and
:13:15. > :13:22.fascinating journey. Along the way we met missionaries, scientists,
:13:23. > :13:29.priests, G hard disk, mothers, , many murderers and almost all of
:13:30. > :13:44.them had fancy prose styles. We read sci`fi, spy fly, detective fiction,
:13:45. > :13:48.gumshoe, screwball, we passed through landscapes of great
:13:49. > :13:57.strangeness, we were by turns amazed, saddened, board, very
:13:58. > :14:02.bored, confided in and betrayed. The very best books we read reminded us
:14:03. > :14:11.of the peculiar powers of the novel as a form. To examine the workings
:14:12. > :14:17.of memory and the makings of thought and to use the postulate to repower
:14:18. > :14:26.what of fiction to illuminate, criticise all the pattern what we
:14:27. > :14:33.consider to be the real. The novel has knowledge as its only morality
:14:34. > :14:41.as a form. I think that means true novels discover only what the novel
:14:42. > :14:46.can. Not the TV series, newspaper column, historical essay. To survive
:14:47. > :14:54.and thrive the novel must continue to discover what only the novel can
:14:55. > :15:16.discover. Before I turn to that short list I give thanks to...
:15:17. > :15:26.Thank you to Scott, Amy, Lucy and others who have been models of
:15:27. > :15:30.imaginative visions. We have been generously supported throughout by
:15:31. > :15:35.various people and I am grateful above all to my fellow judges, in
:15:36. > :15:45.whom I have been staggeringly fortunate. They have worked with and
:15:46. > :15:55.integrity and a diligence. APPLAUSE thank you.
:15:56. > :15:58.I haven't even finished my list. They are all virtues. Critical
:15:59. > :16:05.acuity as well. They have been faultless. We also laughed a lot as
:16:06. > :16:14.well. Now to our winner so why take the novels in alphabetical level of
:16:15. > :16:34.offer. The only debut novel Honours list is We Need New Names. The book
:16:35. > :16:37.tells the tale of a girl going to a promised land and each chapter
:16:38. > :16:45.filled with you fresh adventure in line was. Its violence and honesty
:16:46. > :16:48.should cos. The Luminaries is set in the New Zealand gold rush started
:16:49. > :16:54.slowly but deeply staked its claim upon us. It is animated by this
:16:55. > :17:01.weird struggle between compulsion and perversion. Men and women
:17:02. > :17:12.proceed according to their fixed fates while gold around, as will ``
:17:13. > :17:15.bouillon and bars, makes his way. It is intricately structured. It
:17:16. > :17:21.requires a huge investment of time from the reader. The dividend is it
:17:22. > :17:26.offers are asking uncle. Harvest was among the very first novels we read.
:17:27. > :17:29.It continued to wander through the many months of routing that
:17:30. > :17:35.followed. It told us, that the term memories and all sorts of ways. ``
:17:36. > :17:43.many months of reading. It is set in a English village and is an
:17:44. > :17:50.locatable in space and time. It is area and infuses easy allegiance to
:17:51. > :17:55.allegory and parable. It is disturbing at the level of form and
:17:56. > :17:59.dazzling at the level of sentence. The Lowland is seismological in that
:18:00. > :18:04.it is concerned with the tremors and after`shocks of a dramatic event
:18:05. > :18:07.that is at its core. It is a novel about distance and separation but
:18:08. > :18:11.also about the impossibility of leaving cert signs of past behind,
:18:12. > :18:16.however far you move. `` certain times. Its patience was admirable
:18:17. > :18:26.and it works by gathering a terrible sadness over its line. A Deal For A
:18:27. > :18:33.Time Being if the turbulent story of two parts. It is preoccupied with
:18:34. > :18:40.simultaneity is and in keeping with the quantum physics, it is tender
:18:41. > :18:45.and refined, comic and brave, hopeful and desperate. We loved it
:18:46. > :18:54.spirit in several senses. We are all Hello Kitty fans now. Lastly, The
:18:55. > :18:58.Testament Of Mild. This is a fiercely compassionate novel about a
:18:59. > :19:11.mother's levels of love for her sun. `` of movie. It is barely 100 pages
:19:12. > :19:15.long `` the Testament of male. Its story is ancient. Radicalisation,
:19:16. > :19:18.authoritarianism, who would have thought that was the oldest and
:19:19. > :19:23.best`known of the world's stories could have been made modern this
:19:24. > :19:28.manner? These are six extraordinary novels. It has been a huge pleasure
:19:29. > :19:31.to us to watch the reception of the short list worldwide, the claim that
:19:32. > :19:36.the books have already received. It has not been easy to choose a
:19:37. > :19:41.winner. Of course, we have done so. And the winner of the 2013 man
:19:42. > :20:28.Booker Prize for fiction is the Luminaries.
:20:29. > :21:28.Thank you. When I began writing The Luminaries, I was very much in the
:21:29. > :21:33.thrall of a wonderful book The Gift, as I still am. In his conception of
:21:34. > :21:38.the creative enterprise is explored in that book, it was very important
:21:39. > :21:41.to me in how I came to understand the West Coast of the South Island
:21:42. > :21:48.of New Zealand during the years of the gold rush. The region is which
:21:49. > :21:55.in two very different minerals, gold, prized by Europeans for its
:21:56. > :22:02.value, and Greenstone, prized by the natives for its worth. Gold being
:22:03. > :22:09.pure currency can only be bought and sold. Greenstone is a symbol of
:22:10. > :22:17.belonging and prestige and can only be given. An economy based on value
:22:18. > :22:23.in Lewis Hyde's conception is not necessarily inferior to an economy
:22:24. > :22:26.based on worth. But they too must somehow be weak and filed in the
:22:27. > :22:34.life of an artist who wishes to make a living by his or her gift. By his
:22:35. > :22:39.or her art. On the West Coast, this intersection of economies has a
:22:40. > :22:46.national significance, speaking as it does to New Zealand's essentially
:22:47. > :22:52.bicultural part. `` bicultural heart. I am very aware of the
:22:53. > :22:56.blushing's pressures to make money and remain competitive. I know that
:22:57. > :23:03.it is now small thing that my primary publishers, here in London,
:23:04. > :23:08.and in New Zealand, never once made these pressures known to me while I
:23:09. > :23:12.was writing this book. `` of the publishing pressures. I was free to
:23:13. > :23:20.concern myself with questions not of value but of worth. This is all the
:23:21. > :23:33.more incredible to me because The cup luminaries `` the luminaries was
:23:34. > :23:38.a nightmare, not only mathematically impossible but astrologically
:23:39. > :23:43.impossible by suggestions. A very sensible e`mail from one of my two
:23:44. > :23:46.editors, Sarah Holloway or Max Porter, might have even turned the
:23:47. > :23:54.very annoying and not at all sensible reply, well, you would
:23:55. > :23:57.think that, being a Virgo. I am extraordinarily fortunate in having
:23:58. > :24:02.found a home at these publishing houses and to have found friends and
:24:03. > :24:09.colleagues and people who have managed to strike an elegant balance
:24:10. > :24:17.between making art and making money. To everybody at my publishing
:24:18. > :24:23.houses, thank you. I would also like to make some very brief but Hartford
:24:24. > :24:26.individual thanks to my editors, Sarah Holloway and Marks Porter,
:24:27. > :24:34.whose influence on the boot has been conspiratorially, rigorous and for
:24:35. > :24:42.me incredibly sustaining. `` Mark Porter, on the book. To those who
:24:43. > :24:49.were kind enough to take a chance on me. To my dear agent, in whom I
:24:50. > :24:55.trust completely. I must also thank my beloved Steve to solvent, whose
:24:56. > :25:09.kindness, patience and love is written on every page of my book. ``
:25:10. > :25:17.Steve Tucson. I would also like to thank those who considered my work,
:25:18. > :25:21.alongside the other incredibly important writers. And also for
:25:22. > :25:32.providing the value and the worth jointly of this extraordinary prize.
:25:33. > :25:40.Thank you. The winner of the 2013 Booker Prize
:25:41. > :25:51.with Herbert The Luminaries. You both tipped her, a bold choice but a
:25:52. > :25:58.good one. Docs about the light, it is a book, this is a book of the
:25:59. > :26:03.great artifice and we'll test a lot of people but well worth the test.
:26:04. > :26:07.It's just heavy, not difficult. No need to lug around! We are so
:26:08. > :26:11.grateful. Thank you for breaking off from your dinner to talk to us.
:26:12. > :26:19.There you have it, as I say, the winner of the 2013 Man Booker Prize.
:26:20. > :26:23.She has become the youngest person, at the age of 28, ever to win the
:26:24. > :26:24.prize. From all of us here at the Guildhall, many thanks for watching.
:26:25. > :26:52.Good night. We had plenty of fine weather today,
:26:53. > :26:56.particularly across the south`west. Tomorrow, different story with that
:26:57. > :26:59.rain on the way. It will reach Cornwall at the time we get to
:27:00. > :27:03.midnight. That claim is going to continue to make its journey towards
:27:04. > :27:09.the north`east. Before that happens, eastern areas will turn quite foggy
:27:10. > :27:14.`` that rain. Anywhere from the south east, the East Midlands and
:27:15. > :27:18.Yorkshire, the sailors could turn very foggy indeed. Steady on the
:27:19. > :27:21.roads. That Bob is going to clear away quite quickly throughout the
:27:22. > :27:24.morning because the rain will arrive and also the breeze is going to pick
:27:25. > :27:26.up. It is going to wash all of that for