Every author shortlisted for the Booker Prize receives a bespoke bound copy of their book. Find out more here about this year’s books, and the bookbinding process.
For more than 30 years now, members of the Designer Bookbinders society have created a bespoke edition of every title on the Booker shortlist. These one-of-a-kind editions are given to the authors of the novels to keep.
This year’s makers from Designer Bookbinders are Tom McEwan for A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam); Kate Holland for The Promise by Damon Galgut; Mark Cockram for No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood; Stephen Conway for The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed; Glenn Bartley for Bewilderment by Richard Powers; and Sue Doggett for Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead.
As well as the book, the binders also create a protective container for the novel. The group have just six weeks to create their edition, between the shortlist announcement and the winner ceremony; the process would usually take three to four months.
Each book takes around 150 hours of work to create; there are at 25 stages to hand binding a book, including the decoration of the edges of the pages and the final lettering.
Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other, bound by Sue Doggett.
