![How late it was, how late](/sites/default/files/styles/2_3_media_tiny/public/images/how_late_it_was_how_late.jpg?itok=nrBZP1BW 98w, /sites/default/files/styles/2_3_media_small/public/images/how_late_it_was_how_late.jpg?itok=Sk8o7o9E 121w, /sites/default/files/styles/2_3_media_medium/public/images/how_late_it_was_how_late.jpg?itok=qHqbHhdV 157w, /sites/default/files/styles/2_3_media_large/public/images/how_late_it_was_how_late.jpg?itok=MLe0uYoZ 171w, /sites/default/files/styles/2_3_media_x_large/public/images/how_late_it_was_how_late.jpg?itok=DAJCx5JU 216w, /sites/default/files/styles/2_3_media_huge/public/images/how_late_it_was_how_late.jpg?itok=othY8m-K 283w)
By James Kelman
1994 Booker Prize judges
Another vintage controversy when James Kelman’s win with his profanity-laden How Late It Was, How Late loosed a few profanities itself among tender-souled readers and reviewers.
Kelman was Scotland’s first Booker Prize winner – having been shortlisted in 1989 for A Disaffection – although one of the judges, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, dissociated herself from the win, pronouncing the book ‘a disgrace’.
Kelman himself thought the negative publicity made publishers wary of his future books but defended the ripe language as being a true reflection of regional argot: ‘Every time they [Glaswegians] opened their mouth out came a stream of gobbledygook. Beautiful!’
Winner The Booker Prize 1994
By James Kelman