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The Booker Prize at 40

This year’s Man Booker Prize, for which the shortlist is announced on 9 September, is the 40th award since the prize was first presented in 1969.

Below you’ll find a list of past winners which link to entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (for those authors who died in or before 2004) and Who’s Who / Who Was Who for living authors and those who have died since 2004. After this list you’ll find further Oxford DNB entries of well-known writers who have been short-listed for the prize.

The winner of this year’s prize will be announced on 14 October.


Kingsley Amis Iris Murdoch James Farrell Bernice Rubens William Golding

1969 P. H. Newby Something to Answer For
1970 Bernice Rubens The Elected Member
1971 V. S. Naipaul In a Free State
1972 John Berger G
1973 J. G. Farrell The Siege of Krishnapur
1974Nadine Gordimer The Conservationist
1974Stanley Middleton Holiday
1975 Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Heat & Dust
1976David StoreySaville
1977Paul ScottStaying On
1978Iris MurdochThe Sea, The Sea
1979Penelope FitzgeraldOffshore
1980William GoldingRites of Passage
1981Salman RushdieMidnight’s Children
1982Thomas KeneallySchindler’s Ark
1983J. M. CoetzeeLife & Times of Michael K
1984Anita BrooknerHotel du Lac
1985Keri HulmeThe Bone People
1986Kingsley AmisThe Old Devils
1987Penelope LivelyMoon Tiger
1988Peter CareyOscar and Lucinda
1989Kazuo IshiguroThe Remains of the Day
1990A. S. ByattPossession: A Romance
1991Ben OkriThe Famished Road
1992Michael OndaatjeThe English Patient
1992Barry UnsworthSacred Hunger
1993Roddy DoylePaddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
1994James KelmanHow Late It Was, How Late
1995Pat BarkerThe Ghost Road
1996Graham SwiftLast Orders
1997Arundhati RoyThe God of Small Things
1998Ian McEwanAmsterdam
1999J. M. CoetzeeDisgrace
2000Margaret AtwoodThe Blind Assassin
2001Peter CareyTrue History of the Kelly Gang
2002Yann MartelLife of Pi
2003D. B. C. PierreVernon God Little
2004Alan HollinghurstThe Line of Beauty
2005John BanvilleThe Sea
2006Kiran DesaiThe Inheritance of Loss
2007Anne EnrightThe Gathering

Malcolm Bradbury Caroline Blackwood Anthony Burgess Elizabeth Bowen Robertson Davies

Authors short-listed for the Booker prize, with entries in the Oxford DNB, include:


1970Elizabeth BowenEva Trout
1974C. P. SnowIn Their Wisdom
1976Brian MooreThe Doctor’s Wife
1977Caroline BlackwoodGreat Granny Webster
1977Barbara PymQuartet in Autumn
1980Anthony BurgessEarthly Powers
1981J. L. CarrA Month in the Country
1981Molly KeaneGood Behaviour
1982Lawrence DurrellConstance or Solitary Practices
1983Malcolm BradburyRates of Exchange
1986Robertson DaviesWhat’s Bred in the Bone
1988Bruce ChatwinUtz



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