Skip to main content
Beryl Bainbridge 1998
Information

The Booker Prize and the best of Beryl Bainbridge

Published

Born 90 years ago, the much-loved Dame Beryl Bainbridge was shortlisted five times for the Booker Prize - the most that any author has been shortlisted without actually winning

Following her death in 2010, the Booker Prize Foundation created a special prize the following year, The Man Booker ‘Best of Beryl’. The winning novel, chosen by the public, was Master Georgie - originally shortlisted for the 1998 Man Booker Prize and described by the Sunday Telegraph as ‘Truly extraordinary, heartbreakingly good.’ All five novels were reissued by Abacus. 

The winning book was announced at a party in Soho to celebrate the author’s life. The prize - a one-off, designer-bound copy of the book - was accepted by Beryl’s daughter Jojo Davies and grandson Charlie Russell, on behalf of the family. The evening included tributes from Sir Ronald Harwood; AN Wilson; her long-standing agent, Andrew Hewson and Publisher at Little, Brown, Richard Beswick.

Beryl was a very gracious non-winner and no Man Booker dinner was complete without her. She may have been known as the eternal Booker Bridesmaid, but we are delighted to be able finally to crown Master Georgie a Booker Bride

Ion Trewin, then Literary Director of the Booker Foundation and former judge of the prize

The Best of Beryl: Winner

Master Georgie
Beryl Bainbridge explores the British experience of the Crimean War through the adventures - and hidden secrets - of her enigmatic central character

The Best of Beryl: Shortlist

The Dressmaker
The mundane and the macabre collide in Beryl Bainbridge’s darkly comic tale about the shockingly unexpected consequences of a young girl’s heartbreak