:00:26. > :00:31.Welcome to London's magnificent Guildhall. We will surely find out
:00:31. > :00:37.who is the winner of the Man Booker Prize, worth �50,000 to the win and
:00:37. > :00:44.so much more. Could it be Hilary Mantel, who won in 2009 and could
:00:44. > :00:51.be the first woman to win twice? Or could it be one of two first-time
:00:51. > :01:01.novelists. But first, let's look at the short list drawn somewhere list
:01:01. > :01:16.
:01:16. > :01:23.To guide us through this evening's proceedings I am joined by the
:01:23. > :01:28.winner of the Booker Prize in 1991, and Gabby with, the book's editor
:01:28. > :01:33.at the Daily Telegraph. What difference did it make to you to
:01:33. > :01:40.win the prize? Well, I am going to smile first because it made an
:01:40. > :01:48.enormous difference. I came into this dinner with everyone saying I
:01:48. > :01:55.didn't stand a chance. Another author said to me, Ben, you are not
:01:55. > :02:00.going to win so enjoy yourself. good attitude! If and then my name
:02:00. > :02:08.was announced and it was like being slapped on the back of their head
:02:08. > :02:12.with a beautiful kiss! It completely transforms the writer's
:02:12. > :02:20.life. It introduces an intensity of gays and even changes the way you
:02:20. > :02:23.right. It raises the temperature. Why? Because you have to live up to
:02:23. > :02:30.something? I think it is because you cannot write the same way any
:02:30. > :02:35.more. You just can't. You must change and evolve. For some people
:02:35. > :02:44.it feels like the end of the game. For me, it was the beginning and it
:02:44. > :02:48.opened by career and my writing arm. Gabby, two writers have said it is
:02:48. > :02:50.a lottery because you have different judges every year and
:02:50. > :02:57.different competitors with different moods and different
:02:57. > :03:02.beliefs. It is very difficult to judge this, I would have thought?
:03:02. > :03:06.Absolutely. Almost impossible. The novel form has so many different
:03:06. > :03:11.forms and exponents so you even feel you are not comparing like
:03:12. > :03:20.with like. If you feel, should it possibly not be up like the cost of
:03:20. > :03:24.prize, comparing a novel with a biography with poetry? And it is
:03:24. > :03:30.already very difficult to see two things which are in different
:03:30. > :03:37.genres. People have been talking about Hilary Mantel and the sequel
:03:37. > :03:43.to Wolf Hall. And also Will Self's book Umbrella. Which is completely
:03:43. > :03:47.different. There couldn't be two more different books to read?
:03:47. > :03:53.they are so different but you can make a link between them. Will
:03:53. > :04:01.Self's book makes history more non- linear and Hilary Mantel's book
:04:01. > :04:11.brings it to life in this incredible wave. I think one is and
:04:11. > :04:12.
:04:12. > :04:16.one is micro. Yes. But the basic human desires and frailties and
:04:16. > :04:23.wickedness is absolutely the same? I think that is one of the most
:04:23. > :04:29.important things about the novel. It can telescope deeper into the
:04:29. > :04:34.human spirit as if you were looking at the stars... These urges, the
:04:34. > :04:41.technology of humanity doesn't change. If anything, time actually
:04:41. > :04:44.makes us more ourselves. And the novel is a particularly powerful
:04:44. > :04:48.lens for studying all of these secret aspects of what it is to be
:04:48. > :04:54.human and a wonderful thing about this short list is we get different
:04:54. > :04:58.kinds of lenses, both in terms of technique and subject. Absolutely.
:04:58. > :05:02.Something which strikes me as well is that Hilary Mantel is much loved
:05:02. > :05:07.him Britain in particular because she strikes a particular chord here.
:05:07. > :05:15.Will Self has gorilla Miras but Umbrella is quite tricky. It will
:05:15. > :05:20.be off-putting to some people. -- has some admirers. It is not an
:05:20. > :05:24.easy read. I think he is set in a challenge to the reader. But having
:05:24. > :05:32.said that, you get past the first ad pages and it really picks up
:05:32. > :05:37.momentum and becomes a very simple book. -- 80 pages. They are simple,
:05:37. > :05:44.beautiful descriptions of a book that's only somebody very
:05:44. > :05:48.complicated good spot. It is a real feat. I think the difference here
:05:48. > :05:54.is that it is slightly modelled on Ulysses bowl with Ulysses you begin
:05:55. > :06:04.with clarity and move towards complication. -- but with Ulysses.
:06:05. > :06:05.
:06:05. > :06:15.Whereas with swirls -- with Will Self, you begin with complication
:06:15. > :06:16.
:06:16. > :06:23.and move towards clarity. And then we have The Garden Of Evening Mists.
:06:23. > :06:27.It is about hating the Japanese war and coming to terms with history.
:06:27. > :06:33.Yes, a different approach and a very poetic approach. At I liked it
:06:33. > :06:37.very much and in many ways, it is one of my favourites. I liked the
:06:37. > :06:43.tranquillity of his aesthetic pursuit at the heart of the book.
:06:43. > :06:48.It really is a book about beauty and about the garden transforming
:06:48. > :06:52.pain and the wounds of history. So finally if it is about those
:06:52. > :06:58.intangible sensations of life and it does so with a prose that is
:06:58. > :07:03.very quiet and suddenly leaps out. There is a line when a character
:07:03. > :07:08.talks about gardening being a kind of deception and, which is the
:07:08. > :07:14.novel, obviously, but that kind of beauty and the simplicity also
:07:14. > :07:18.become a love-story and it is quite extraordinary. Did you find that?
:07:18. > :07:22.Is used somebody would be familiar with or is it something the Booker
:07:22. > :07:29.Prize does well, which is make us wake up to somebody we did not know
:07:30. > :07:33.about? Yes. I am ashamed I didn't know about him. I hadn't read his
:07:34. > :07:39.previous book and this one I thought was extraordinary. But as
:07:39. > :07:43.you say, it is the role of the prize to bring these things to
:07:43. > :07:53.one's attention. I particularly liked the garden as a metaphor for
:07:53. > :07:55.
:07:55. > :07:59.fiction as well. Now, Narcopolis, about an area of Mumbai. Completely
:07:59. > :08:04.different from the other books we have talked about. For reading this
:08:04. > :08:12.book was thinking about how people were calling this short list and
:08:12. > :08:16.experiment. -- reading this book I was thinking. It is about a state
:08:16. > :08:22.of city, a state of mind, an altered state, if you like, and
:08:22. > :08:28.doing that through language. It is incredible he makes us do that and
:08:28. > :08:34.takes us to an incredibly different world. And the way he sustains that
:08:34. > :08:38.poetic intensity where nothing intrudes. It is very quiet and
:08:38. > :08:43.densely worked and that the same time it is a page-turner because
:08:43. > :08:50.what you're interested in is not so much the story as the psychosis or
:08:50. > :08:55.neurosis of drug addiction. And the rhythm of it. Yes. But also what
:08:55. > :08:59.interested me was the junkie and even the confessions of an op-ed
:08:59. > :09:05.dealer is that dealing with this, other people's addictions can be
:09:05. > :09:11.dark. And they think they can be interesting but they are rarely
:09:11. > :09:21.boring! And how accessible they are. Like Will Self, you think is the
:09:21. > :09:27.
:09:27. > :09:32.writer writing this war the public or themselves? And then at the
:09:32. > :09:39.books set in Tuscany. Where they are all going to have affairs with
:09:39. > :09:49.each other. But it got me and it got you, didn't it? Yes. It got me.
:09:49. > :09:52.
:09:52. > :10:01.In many ways, you think of a neural -- a Muriel Spark novel. The most
:10:01. > :10:11.famous one... It is very Cubist. What?! Yes, and she is very like
:10:11. > :10:13.
:10:13. > :10:18.that, Deborah Levy. With Swimming Home. She leaps from one sentence
:10:18. > :10:22.very quickly. I thought it was contrived. I loved it but it is
:10:22. > :10:26.almost the opposite of the Will Self. It does something a Paris
:10:26. > :10:30.very simple. But it is also surprising because she nearly
:10:30. > :10:37.didn't get it published. Extraordinary! I think in a moment
:10:37. > :10:42.we are about to see the chairman of the Times's supplement, who will
:10:42. > :10:50.tell us not only who has won but a bit of an outline of how they came
:10:50. > :11:00.to their decision. Other people will praise the winner of the Man
:11:00. > :11:02.
:11:02. > :11:07.Booker Prize are for 2012 and quite soon, too. Not long to wait now.
:11:07. > :11:13.Others here will do that praising as soon as I have announced the
:11:13. > :11:23.name of the book. The name that will stand for idea at their head
:11:23. > :11:27.
:11:27. > :11:37.of a long line of great winners. Wolf Hall, 2009, Disgrace, 1999,
:11:37. > :11:38.
:11:38. > :11:45.Midnight's Children, 1989. These books, these winners are part of
:11:45. > :11:51.our lives. Like great cities and seaside towns. We go back to them,
:11:51. > :11:58.we read them in different ways and at different seasons. They bring
:11:58. > :12:05.with them memories of joy and rage. They go in and out of fashion but
:12:06. > :12:12.there are always there. They form a catalogue and unfashionable though
:12:12. > :12:22.that may be, a cannon. That is what this prize rout his life has
:12:22. > :12:27.brought to the novel. A list that a new name is about to join. So since
:12:27. > :12:32.others will praise the winner, albeit some of you with gracious
:12:32. > :12:37.disappointment, I am going to be raised other things. First, my
:12:37. > :12:41.fellow judges. Not so much for themselves, though they have been
:12:41. > :12:47.courageous colleagues with whom I would take on any tough journey
:12:47. > :12:57.again. As for their methods, their knowledge, the sensibility and
:12:57. > :13:04.powers of reasoning, the literary criticism of them all over the past
:13:04. > :13:11.11 months. They are critical arguments. The arguments that built
:13:11. > :13:15.towards judgment and did not begin with a yes or no, a verdict of five
:13:15. > :13:21.stars or none. All of them have shown that patience the novel
:13:21. > :13:28.demands and deserves. The methods through which a great novel may
:13:28. > :13:37.emerge interview. Through every obstacle, every prejudice in the
:13:37. > :13:41.reader, every resistance from the text. Next, at some point tonight,
:13:41. > :13:49.when the excitement has calmed down, I would ask you to raise a glass to
:13:49. > :13:58.the books whose names are not on the finalists. This has been an
:13:58. > :14:03.extraordinary year for man Booker fiction. Each judge has his or home
:14:03. > :14:11.favourites from those we left behind but all of us found many
:14:11. > :14:19.texts that deepen our understanding of other minds. Those other ways of
:14:19. > :14:24.seeing, that glory at the novel's core. So, prays to the publishers.
:14:24. > :14:32.Most of all, breeze to the small publishers who, this year, brought
:14:33. > :14:36.us great things. -- praise to the publishers. His prize was
:14:36. > :14:42.established four decades ago with the call the judges should not seek
:14:42. > :14:51.to recognise or create best sellers. -- this prize. Of the judges were
:14:51. > :14:57.ever to do that, argued the hugger -- the Booker chairman, Sir Michael
:14:57. > :15:04.Caine. His words were right then and there are right now. These are
:15:04. > :15:10.turbulent times for all sellers and buyers of books. Many a glass of
:15:10. > :15:17.hope, bravado more like, must have been raised this year in the small
:15:17. > :15:22.publishing houses of High Wycombe, crowbar and Newcastle. And all the
:15:22. > :15:30.sweeter are their wines now. Our short list is selling well. That is
:15:30. > :15:40.good. But without publishers, big and small, who put beauty first,
:15:40. > :15:48.
:15:48. > :15:55.there would have been nothing worth Finally, praise to the novel itself
:15:55. > :16:00.in 2012. The quality of the text that is not dead as soon as it read.
:16:00. > :16:05.The novel that will stand to be re- read in future decades. The best
:16:05. > :16:15.books, like places and people, change over time. We change with
:16:15. > :16:16.
:16:16. > :16:19.them. We changed each other. We pass on, we pass on the books.
:16:19. > :16:26.Someone accused me last week of not seeking novels that they can read
:16:26. > :16:36.on the beach. No, I merely wanted novels that they would not leave
:16:36. > :16:42.
:16:42. > :16:46.behind on the beach. APPLAUSE.
:16:46. > :16:52.The novel's represented here tonight have no common theme.
:16:52. > :16:58.Occasionally I fought against one, the City, perhaps. Mad money, that
:16:58. > :17:02.technology, even parakeets. Immigrant parrots seemed the
:17:02. > :17:10.novelist third of the year for a while but always the theme, like
:17:10. > :17:16.the Byrds, flitted away. The novels that have won through to reach a
:17:16. > :17:24.final deliberations today were reunited only by the energy of
:17:24. > :17:29.language, by prose that glowed. The wings of words, the lilt, the
:17:29. > :17:36.lightness and dark that renew our language as great novels always
:17:36. > :17:43.have and must. That is not the only virtue of a novel, but it was the
:17:43. > :17:51.virtue that linked our final list. It is a virtue always much needed
:17:51. > :17:59.and especially needed now. So, for vitality, for fierce intelligence,
:17:59. > :18:09.and most of all for prose. The winner of the 2012 Man Booker Prize
:18:09. > :18:15.
:18:16. > :18:25.for fiction is Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel.
:18:26. > :18:26.
:18:26. > :19:15.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 49 seconds
:19:15. > :19:25.Well, I don't know! You wait 20 years for rape Booker Prize -- for
:19:25. > :19:30.
:19:30. > :19:35.the Booker Prize, and to come along at once! A broadcaster whose
:19:35. > :19:42.opinion I really respect came to see me the other week. She has read
:19:42. > :19:49.every shortlist for years. She said that this was one of the most
:19:49. > :19:57.varied and the strongest she could ever remember. So I know how
:19:57. > :20:03.privileged and how lucky I am to be standing here tonight. I would like
:20:03. > :20:09.to thank the judges whose task in any year is a difficult and
:20:09. > :20:16.delicate one and even also this year, I would think. I would like
:20:16. > :20:20.to thank the organisation for their generous sponsorship and these
:20:20. > :20:27.words are conventional, but they do come from the heart. I would like
:20:27. > :20:35.to thank my publisher and my agent. And they have to do something very
:20:35. > :20:42.difficult now. I have to go away and write the third part of the
:20:42. > :20:52.trilogy. I assure you I have their expectations that I will be
:20:52. > :20:52.
:20:53. > :21:02.standing here again! But I regard this as an act of faith and a vote
:21:03. > :21:09.
:21:09. > :21:13.of confidence. Thank you. APPLAUSE.
:21:13. > :21:18.The first woman to win the prize twice and the first British person
:21:18. > :21:22.to win the prize twice. I am joined again by Ben Okri and Gaby Wood.
:21:22. > :21:26.Are you suprised? I am delighted! I think the other
:21:26. > :21:33.thing is that she has won it for two books in a series which has got
:21:33. > :21:39.to be a first altogether. Judges are very wary of giving because two
:21:39. > :21:43.sequels. They have to put the first run out of their mind. One of the
:21:43. > :21:48.things that has struck me is that I preferred this to the last one.
:21:48. > :21:53.did as well. It is much faster and streamlined and it has this very
:21:53. > :21:57.novel technique in the end of whittling down the days and hours
:21:57. > :22:04.and minutes until the final scene. It is very strong. I think this is
:22:04. > :22:12.a case where the judges went for purity and strength of story
:22:12. > :22:16.telling. I tend to have a theory about the Man Booker Prize in that
:22:16. > :22:23.it tends to say something about the times we are in. What does this
:22:23. > :22:27.tell us? I don't know. Here is a suggestion. The one thing that
:22:27. > :22:32.really struck me was how vicious the politics were. Literally. They
:22:32. > :22:42.were bloodthirsty and cut throat. I began to wonder if there is a
:22:42. > :22:43.
:22:43. > :22:48.parrot -- pattern set 500 years ago. They could be using the elections.
:22:48. > :22:52.It is extraordinary to win twice. To win once is amazing but to win
:22:52. > :22:56.twice... This is the third time in the whole history of the prize.
:22:56. > :22:59.Normally there is a great period of time between winning the first time
:22:59. > :23:04.and the second time but in this case it was just three years.
:23:04. > :23:08.years, yes. It is an extraordinary compliment to have. As she just
:23:08. > :23:13.said, she has to now right the third instalment in the series.
:23:13. > :23:17.pressure! A few things I will pick up with you. One thing that struck
:23:17. > :23:21.me is that there were two first- time novelists here and of the six
:23:21. > :23:25.books on the shortlist, some of them were novelists we had not
:23:25. > :23:28.heard of but also from publishers we have not heard of which is
:23:28. > :23:32.interesting. Four that is the great in the price can do, is to draw
:23:32. > :23:34.attention to that. Everyone is complaining about the death of the
:23:34. > :23:38.publishing industry but it means that really exciting stuff is
:23:38. > :23:43.happening if only you know where to look. In these difficult times it
:23:43. > :23:47.may have made publishers a little bit wary or cautious and it is the
:23:47. > :23:55.small publishing houses that can take risks. It sends a really
:23:55. > :23:58.wonderful message to publishing. All sewn to have second thoughts
:23:58. > :24:03.and judgments, the Deborah Levy book that was shortlisted but did
:24:03. > :24:07.not win was rejected at the start and is now doing very well because
:24:07. > :24:12.it is very readable and that is also an interesting story.
:24:12. > :24:18.published by subscription almost. It is a very interesting story that.
:24:18. > :24:22.Is based on a subscription model. To what the books was subsequently
:24:22. > :24:26.to the shortlisting, published in a more commercial form by a small
:24:26. > :24:30.publisher and a big one. Talking a bit about what this does for an
:24:31. > :24:33.author who wins, what does it do for publishing in general? Here we
:24:33. > :24:39.are, talking about books on television which does not happen
:24:39. > :24:43.all the time. That is something. Yes, it is really encouraging. I
:24:43. > :24:47.was at a Book Fair last week and I was so cheered by the fact that
:24:47. > :24:53.people are so invested in storytelling. How we get steered,
:24:53. > :24:58.the vehicle, is unimportant. It does not matter if it is digital or
:24:58. > :25:04.if it it's becoming a movie but the story that generates all of this.
:25:04. > :25:08.It is interesting what it does for the quality of reading. The highest
:25:08. > :25:13.quality of reading is all the help and encouragement they can get.
:25:13. > :25:18.Partly because we are going through a period of diminishing potential.
:25:18. > :25:24.I felt it was very courageous for someone like Will Self to write a
:25:24. > :25:30.book like Umbrella at a time like this. You have to pay attention but
:25:30. > :25:33.it is worth it in the end. Do you think that overall the terrible
:25:33. > :25:39.times in the economy are encouraging be able to sit at home
:25:39. > :25:43.and read books? It is a lovely idea. Perhaps it is just a pipe dream. We
:25:43. > :25:47.will leave it there. It has been a great night. We have Hilary Mantel,