2010 The Lost Man Booker

The Lost Man Booker Prize

The Lost Man Booker Prize was a one-off prize to honour the books that missed out on the opportunity to win the Booker Prize in 1970.

In 1971, just two years after it began, the Booker Prize ceased to be awarded retrospectively and became a prize for the best novel of the year of publication. At the same time the award moved from April to November, resulting in a wealth of fiction published for much of 1970 not
being considered for the prize.

In 2008, 40 years on, a panel of three judges - all of whom were born in or around 1970 - was appointed to select a shortlist of six novels from that year. They were poet and novelist Tobias Hill, television newsreader, Katie Derham, and the journalist and critic, Rachel Cooke.

The winner of the Lost Man Booker Prize was J.G. Farrell with Troubles.  His brother Richard Farrell accepted a designer-bound copy of the novel on his behalf.

'I am delighted that the reading public has selected Troubles as the winner of the Lost Booker.  Just having been short listed has already drawn it to the attention of a wider readership and with luck this process will now accelerate.  Most people who read Jim’s work then fall in love with it.

Troubles has a special place in my heart.  It was the first book for which Jim received sustained and unanimous critical acclaim and it earned him his place amongst the leaders of contemporary literature.  But more than that, for me it recreates the Ireland of those times wonderfully and takes me back to the country in which I grew up.  Amongst its characters I can see family members and retainers, our dogs and our way of life.  It takes me back to the prejudices of the time, now happily diminished, if not banished entirely' JG Farrell's brother, Richard Farrell

The Lost Man Booker 2010

Press release

Invitation