...well I don't know yet because I'm poised here listening and half watching the BBC News channel online because for some reason this year I've got hyper-acute Booker anxiety.
Currently I'm being warned not to let my dog paddle in the River Trent because of raw sewage and next up news of a major security hack into emails...just give me the Booker please.
Right we're off and Andrew Motion and Helena Kennedy are our resident experts and Andrew is giving his verdict on Hilary Mantel...he thinks it's flat...hmm he's unimpressed!
Camera pans to Hilary looking pale and petrified.
Adam Foulds, Andrew admits an interest because he taught him on the Creative Writing course at East Anglia, not a fussy or over-scented poetry.
Helena Kennedy supports the whole Booker list as a benchmark for good reads.
The first three authors read from their books... Byatt, Coetzee & Foulds.
Andrew M offers an opinion on Coetzee and his reclusiveness in direct contrast with his books becoming increasingly about himself. Helena sees it as a new development in writing.
Is Byatt too much a book of ideas? Andrew Motion considers this among her best work and plenty of the characteristic Byatt interplay of lecturing and imagination, was the lecturing perhaps too obtrusive, Andrew Motion thought it might be.
The second three authors talk about their books...Mantel, Mawer & Waters.
Is this perhaps not Waters' best book? Does the prize sometimes go to the wrong book but the right person? Yes it does agrees Andrew Motion,
Cue Naughtie for the ANNOUNCEMENT...
A run through of the books and their merits...and then there was one...passionate and committed discussions
and it's....HILARY MANTEL!!!!!
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