To celebrate the legacy of David Lodge, we revisit his speech from the 1989 ceremony, in which he explored how the prize sparks a vital discussion that extends beyond the literary world
David Lodge
1989 Judge (Chair)
- Lived
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- Prizes judged
Despite believing that ‘a committee is a blunt instrument of literary criticism’, the novelist David Lodge chaired a group of judges that came up with a roundly applauded winner
Lodge’s ‘campus novels’ satirising academic life were the fruit of a long parallel career as an academic, notably at the University of Birmingham – the model for his fictional institution ‘Rummidge’. With his friend Malcolm Bradbury he showed readers that non-metropolitan fiction was both vibrant and valid. Lodge was Chair of judges in 1989 (awarding the prize to Kazuo Ishiguro for The Remains of the Day). He was also a twice-shortlisted novelist (1984 and 1988), while his Out of the Shelter (1970) was longlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize. He was also the author of three plays and two volumes of autobiography. He died on 1 January 2025 at the age of 89.
All nominated books
The restrictions of a wartime childhood in London and subsequent post-war shortages have done little to enrich Timothy's early youth. But everything changes when Timothy's glamorous older sister, Kath, invites him to spend the summer at Heidelberg.
The final volume of David Lodge’s witty Campus Trilogy is set around the unlikely relationship between a senior manager and a left-wing academic
In the second book of his ‘campus’ trilogy, David Lodge chronicles the pursuit of passion and the search for the holy grail of academic perks
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