Beryl Bainbridge explores the British experience of the Crimean War through the adventures - and hidden secrets - of her enigmatic central character.
Beryl Bainbridge at home in Camden Town, London, 1998
The Booker Prize and the best of Beryl Bainbridge
Beryl Bainbridge at home in Camden Town, London, 1998
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.
Publication date and time: Published
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
The Best of Beryl: Shortlist
A darkly perceptive coming-of-age tale set in a Liverpool the 1950s from Beryl Bainbridge, tied together at the end with her trademark skill.
Beryl Bainbridge’s fictional history chronicles the fate of the privileged passengers of the Titanic on its doomed maiden voyage.
Surprises abound in Beryl Bainbridge’s unsettling comic novel, praised by fellow author Graham Greene as both ‘outrageously funny and horrifying’.
The mundane and the macabre collide in Beryl Bainbridge’s darkly comic tale about the shockingly unexpected consequences of a young girl’s heartbreak.
Beryl Bainbridge in pictures
Beryl Bainbridge
© David Levenson/Getty Images
Beryl Bainbridge
© Chris Steele-Perkins
Beryl Bainbridge, 1974
© Graham Wood/Getty Images
Beryl Bainbridge at a Booker Prize ceremony with Sir Michael Caine
© Monitor Photography Limited/ Oxford Brookes Library
Beryl Bainbridge with Doris Lessing at the Man Booker Prize 2007 dinner
© Belinda Lawley
Beryl Bainbridge with her publisher and godson
© Susan Greenhill
Beryl Bainbridge with her novel Master Georgie
© Susan Greenhill
