Booker Prize - Background Information
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is one of the most famous literary awards.
In 2007 Anne Enright won the Man Booker Prize with The Gathering.
The 2005 prize was won by John Banville's The Sea and the 2006 prize went to Kiran Desai for The Inheritance of Loss.
Not only is there a prize of £50,000 but such is the influence of the 'Booker' that it can have an enormous impact on book sales and reputations.
Previous winners like The Line of Beauty (2004), Life of Pi (2002) and Vernon God Little (2003) all became bestsellers.
Most pundits agreed when they saw the long list of titles that 2005 was a vintage year in the Man Booker prize's 36-year history.
In fact, Zadie Smith, when asked whether she might make the Booker shortlist, replied:
"No there's no chance ... Any other year maybe. But it's a hell of a list."
As it transpired, Zadie Smith's On Beauty was chosen from a longlist of 17 contenders, to be on the shortlist of six for the Man Booker prize.
In 2006, the shortlisted novels came from writers with much less experience and the winner The Inheritance of Loss was only Kiran Desai's second novel.