This competition is now closed

To celebrate our December Book of the Month; Any Human Heart by William Boyd, we are giving you the chance to win a copy of the novel and a limited-edition, Booker Prize tote bag featuring an updated design for 2023.

William Boyd’s 2002 longlisted story of a life apparently lived to the full turns into a journey deep into a very human heart. A novel where every life is both ordinary and extraordinary - but Logan Mountstuart’s is more extraordinary than most. As a writer who finds inspiration with Hemingway in Paris and Woolf in London, as a spy recruited by Ian Fleming and betrayed in the war and as an art-dealer in 60s New York, Logan mixes with the movers and shakers of his times. But as a son, friend, lover and husband, he makes the same mistakes we all do in our search for happiness.

The new Booker Prize tote bags are designed by illustrator Adam Simpson and feature Iris, the newly-named Booker Prize trophy. Each bag is emblazoned with a line taken from within The Black Prince, penned by Murdoch and uttered by its protagonist Arnold Baffin: ‘Every book is the wreck of a perfect idea’.

The bags are not available to buy anywhere.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply answer the question below and enter your details below by 12:00 GMT on Monday, December 18, 2023. This competition is open to readers anywhere in the world.

This competition is a free draw, with only one entry allowed per person, and we reserve the right to disqualify any entries where we suspect one person has used a number of different email addresses. Use or attempted use of any automated or other non-manual entry methods is prohibited. 

The draw is governed by our general rules for competitions, available here, but the following specifics also apply (and take precedence should there be any contradiction or ambiguity): 

• There will be five winners, selected at random from entries received by 12:00 GMT Monday, December 18, 2023. Entries received after this time will not be eligible. 
• Each winner will receive a paperback copy of Any Human Heart by William Boyd (current UK edition) and a limited-edition Booker Prize tote bag.  
• Entrants must be 18 or over, and we reserve the right to ask for proof of age at any point in the competition; prize-winners should be aware of the adult themes of the book, particularly if sharing it with other readers. 
• The competition is open to those resident in or outside the UK subject to the proviso that an entry is not eligible if it is from a resident in a country or jurisdiction where this free draw may breach any local law or regulation.    
• Winners will be notified by email no later than 12:00 GMT on Friday, December 22, 2023, and must promptly provide a fully operative postal address for delivery of their prize. If we have not received this within 5 days of us notifying a winner, we will have no obligation to deliver the prize and at our sole discretion, we may select a further winner to receive the prize concerned or simply decide not to give it. 
• We may in due course and at our sole discretion publicise the names of the winners and their location (in general terms, not specific addresses) on our website and/or social media channels and by entering the competition an entrant agrees to this publicity should they be a prize-winner. 
• We can only undertake to do what is reasonable in all the circumstances to deliver the prize to a location outside the UK. 
• Bearing in mind, among other things, the value of the prize itself in relation to cost of delivery, we reserve the right (and this is determined at our sole discretion) to ask a winner to provide an alternative address for delivery to a person/location where the cost is proportionate. 
• Winners are responsible for any taxes or duties they may have to pay in order to take receipt of their prize.
• While we will aim to despatch prizes as soon as possible after the competition has closed, no responsibility can be accepted for entries delayed or lost.
• We are not responsible for any damage to the prize in the course of delivery; while we will consider a request for a replacement (if available) if the prize arrives in a seriously damaged state, this is solely in our discretion depending on the particular circumstances. 
• These terms and conditions are governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of England & Wales, and the courts of England & Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction in relation determining any question or issue in relation to them.