Here comes the Folio Prize - a new book award to rival the Booker

 

At last. As all eyes peer for smoke signals from the Vatican chimney, news of another long-awaited announcement in the literary world.

The so-called rival to the Man Booker Prize has finally been established after two years’ gestation. The sponsor is expected to be The Folio Society, whose chairman is Labour peer Lord Gavron, and the winner will waltz off with £40,000.

The prize, which was initially going to be called the Literature Prize, will be called (cue drumroll) the Folio Prize.

The whole thing is very much the baby of American-born literary agent Andrew Kidd. It was set up in response to the controversial 2011 Man Booker Prize chaired by Dame Stella Rimington, whose approach was considered as overly populist, if not downmarket.

All the fancied runners, from Ali Smith to Alan Hollinghurst, were omitted from that year’s shortlist while Rimington’s fellow judge Chris Mullin said he liked to read novels that “zip along”.

Unlike the Man Booker, the Folio Prize will be open to all novels published in English, including from the US. The Folio Society was founded in 1947 with the aim of publishing “ beautiful books affordable for everyone”. However, the Man Booker still trumps it in the financial stakes with £50,000 in prize money.

Julian Barnes dubbed the Booker “posh bingo”. Will the Folio Prize be known as beautiful bingo?

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