The Lost Man Booker

Two years after it was formed in 1969, the format of the Man Booker prize changed. As of 1971, instead of being awarded retrospectively, the prize was awarded to a book published in the same year; instead of being awarded in April, the date of the prize was moved to November. As a result, a whole publishing year was ignored and many excellent books dating from 1970 were never even considered. This discrepancy was noted by Peter Straus, honorary archivist to the Booker trust, who decided to set up a special award - this year - to give all those so-called 'lost' books a chance at winning. 

This blog has been set up in order to create a forum for all those wanting to join our Lost Booker Club. We'll be attempting to read all six books on the shortlist between 25 March (when the shortlist is released) and some time in May (when the prize is awarded). If you want to join us, then all you have to do is join in.

The shortlist hasn't been decided yet, but here's the longlist:

Brian Aldiss, The Hand Reared Boy 
H.E.Bates, A Little Of What You Fancy?
Nina Bawden, The Birds On The Trees
Melvyn Bragg, A Place In England

Christy Brown, Down All The Days
Len Deighton, Bomber 
J.G.Farrell, Troubles 
Elaine Feinstein, The Circle 
Shirley Hazzard, The Bay Of Noon 
Reginald Hill, A Clubbable Woman 
Susan Hill, I'm The King Of The Castle 
Francis King, A Domestic Animal 
Margaret Laurence, The Fire Dwellers 
David Lodge, Out Of The Shelter 
Iris Murdoch, A Fairly Honourable Defeat
Shiva Naipaul, Fireflies
Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander 
Joe Orton, Head To Toe 
Mary Renault, Fire From Heaven 
Ruth Rendell, A Guilty Thing Surprised 
Muriel Spark, The Driver's Seat 
Patrick White, The Vivisector

Anyone willing to lay down any bets as to which of these 22 titles will make the cut?