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Jul 1, 2024 | 
thebookerprizes.com | Iris Murdoch |Molly Keane |Timothy Mo |Ian McEwan
Looking for a book to put a smile on your face? We’ve trawled the Booker Prize archives in search of the wittiest works, from biting social satire to family farce Written by John Self Publication date and time: Published July 1, 2024You might have concluded from some recent Booker Prize winners that great novels aren’t funny any more.
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Jan 2, 2024 | 
thebookerprizes.com | Iris Murdoch |Molly Keane |Timothy Mo |Ian McEwan
Looking to start the year with a book to put a smile on your face? We’ve trawled the Booker Prize archives in search of the wittiest works, from biting social satire to family farce Written by John Self Publication date and time: Published January 2, 2024You might have concluded from some recent Booker Prize winners that great novels aren’t funny any more.
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Nov 9, 2023 | 
thebookerprizes.com | Iris Murdoch
Reading Iris Murdoch is easy: you start by ignoring her reputation. At least this was my experience, having expected this high-minded philosopher-novelist’s books to be stodgy and remote, animated not by story or characters, but by ideas. This could not have been more wrong. Murdoch’s books are not worthy or dull in the least: dull is the opposite of what they are. Her novels are clever, yes, and ambitious, yet they are not the opposite of popular fiction, but an elevation of it.
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Nov 7, 2023 | 
thebookerprizes.substack.com | Iris Murdoch
Throughout November, we’re celebrating our latest Book of the Month – Iris Murdoch’s The Black Prince, where ex-tax collector and author of two unpopular novels, Bradley Pearson, wishes to devote his retirement to writing a masterpiece. Part metafictional thriller, part love story, Murdoch’s novel was shortlisted for the 1973 Booker Prize and is now widely regarded as her best work.
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Nov 6, 2023 | 
thebookerprizes.com | Iris Murdoch
In her journal on 21 December 1971, Iris Murdoch recorded ‘Finished BP today. Thank God’. The novel, The Black Prince, had gone through a difficult period of gestation.
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Nov 6, 2023 | 
thebookerprizes.com | Iris Murdoch
Skip to main content In 1973, The Black Prince was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Part metafictional thriller, part love story, it was Murdoch’s 15th novel and her third to be recognised by the prizeWidely regarded as her best work, The Black Prince is Murdoch at the height of her powers. Ex-tax collector and author of two unpopular novels, Bradley Pearson wishes to devote his retirement to writing a masterpiece.
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Sep 1, 2023 | 
thebookerprizes.substack.com | Bernice Rubens |Elizabeth Mavor |Beryl Bainbridge |Iris Murdoch
‘Each book is a marvel,’ said Esi Edugyan, the author and Chair of the Booker Prize 2023 judges, when we sat down with her recently to chat about this year’s prize. ‘We came up with a list that we really felt was the representation of the best writing that’s being produced today,’ Edugyan added, reflecting how the panel chose their Booker Dozen.
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Sep 1, 2023 | 
thebookerprizes.com | Elizabeth Mavor |Beryl Bainbridge |Iris Murdoch |Elizabeth Bowen
Some of the more intriguing volumes on the Booker Library’s shelves are the ones that have, over the years, fallen out of print. One of these is Elizabeth Mavor’s A Green Equinox. Shortlisted in 1973, today it’s a conspicuous unknown compared to the novels it was up against: Beryl Bainbridge’s The Dressmaker, Iris Murdoch’s The Black Prince, and that year’s winner, J. G. Farrell’s The Siege of Krishnapur. Hopefully though, Mavor’s novel is about to reach new readers.
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Sep 1, 2023 | 
thebookerprizes.com | Elizabeth Mavor |Beryl Bainbridge |Iris Murdoch |Elizabeth Bowen
Some of the more intriguing volumes on the Booker Library’s shelves are the ones that have, over the years, fallen out of print. One of these is Elizabeth Mavor’s A Green Equinox. Shortlisted in 1973, today it’s a conspicuous unknown compared to the novels it was up against: Beryl Bainbridge’s The Dressmaker, Iris Murdoch’s The Black Prince, and that year’s winner, J. G. Farrell’s The Siege of Krishnapur. Hopefully though, Mavor’s novel is about to reach new readers.
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Aug 15, 2023 | 
patricktreardon.com | Iris Murdoch
In the final pages of his adroit and illuminating 2012 book Haiti: The Aftershocks of History, Laurent Dubois brings Ricardo Seitenfus onto the stage. In December, 2010, Seitenfus — a Brazilian law professor and the head of the Organization of American States mission to Haiti in the aftermath of its catastrophic earthquake eleven months earlier — gave an incisively critical interview to a Swiss reporter.
