Scotland's Booker Successes

In 2002, Scottish publisher Canongate shot to literary fame and success when it published Life of Pi, by Spanish-born Canadian author Yann Martel. Life of Pi won the 2002 Man Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious English-language literary prizes in the world.

Five years later, Canongate published Kate Grenville's The Secret River - set in 19^th century London and Sydney, and MJ Hyland's Carry Me Down, set in 1970s Ireland. Both were both longlisted and then shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize. The eventual winner was The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai.

Canongate are the only Scottish publisher to have won the Booker, but Scottish authors have had many more successes.

Dame Muriel Spark was first shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction in its inaugural year, 1969 (then called the Booker-McConnell Prize). Her short novel The Public Image is tale of the degradation and moral recovery of an Italian movie star. The New York Times said of Spark:

Muriel Spark returned to the Booker shortlist in 1981, with Loitering With Intent. Seen by some as semi-autobiographical, Spark explores the nature of fiction and invention, and how one might lose one's way amongst lies and embelishments. One reviewer described Loitering With Intent as:

Unfortunately, The Public Image is out of print in the UK. Loitering With Intent is due to be republished by Virago in April 2007.

Spark's success continued - Spark was one of the 18 writers nominated for the 2005 Man International Booker Prize, which was launched in Edinburgh at the 2005 Edinburgh International Book Festival. The Prize was eventually won by Albanian Ismail Kadare. Kadare's The Successor has since been published in English by Canongate.

In 1982, Ghanian-born Scottish author William Boyd was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize with his novel An Ice-Cream War. Set in East Africa during WWI, An Ice-Cream War is a historical fiction at its best, both satirical and serious novel of love, passion and war.

James Kelman was the first Scottish author to win the Man Booker Prize, in 1994, but he was first shortlisted in 1989 for A Disaffection. This novel also won him the James Tate Black Memorial Award for Fiction in that year, Scotland's most prestigious literary prize.

But it was the 1994 winner How Late It Was, How Late that was Scotland's first - and, to date, only - Booker Prize winner. It was a controversial choice, even for the Booker judges. Rabbi Julia Newberger described How Late It Was, How Late as "a disgrace" and said "Frankly, it's crap", before storming off the judging panel. In The Times, journalist Simon Jenkins called Kelman "an illiterate savage."

The New York Times gave a more favourable review:

While one online reviewer gave a 5-star review, comparing it to:

1994 was a good year for Scotland. Kelman won the prize, but Orcadian author George Mackay Brown was also shortlisted, for his Viking coming-of-age novel Beside The Ocean Of Time. Mackay's final novel, it also won the Saltire Society's Scottish Book of the Year award.

"'Prozac-lit' rarely comes as uplifting as Bernard MacLaverty's Grace Notes" said Graham Dickson of the Richmond Review. Although born in Belfast, MacLaverty has been living and writing in Scotland for many years.

Grace Notes was also shortlisted for the Whitbread and JT Black Fiction Prizes in 1997.

Andrew O'Hagan's debut Our Fathers was shortlisted in 1999. It is a novel of construction and destruction, where character Jamie Bawn demolishes the decaying high-rises his grandfather once built as visionary homes for the future.

Ali Smith has been shortlisted twice, in 2001 for Hotel World and in 2005 for The Accidental. Both novels are about misplaced, almost ethereal women. Hotel World is:

The Accidental, which won the Whitbread novel of the year and was shortlisted for both the Orange and JT Black Fiction prizes, is, according to The Times: