If you haven't seen it, The Booker Prize Foundation launched the Golden Man Booker Prize to mark its 50th anniversary. This special one-off award crowned the best work of fiction from the last five decades of the prize, as chosen by five judges and then voted for by the public.
Since it was first awarded in 1969, the Man Booker Prize has become the leading prize for quality fiction in English, with the winning books setting a benchmark against which other novels are judged. The Golden Man Booker put all 51 winners – which are all still in print – back under the spotlight, to discover which of them stood the test of time, remaining relevant to readers today.
The ‘Golden Five’, selected by the prize’s five judges to showcase the winning books from Man Booker history were: In a Free State by V. S. Naipaul; Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively; The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje; Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel; and Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. One book was selected from each decade.
And the winner was The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje--one we have not read. Should we?
