February 14th, 2006
Woolf biographer to head Booker panel
It seems like no time at all since John Banville won the Booker Prize but the head of the 2006 judging panel has already been announced. It’s in the very capable hands of Hermione Lee, who first chaired the judging panel in 1981 when one of my favourite books of all time, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children scooped the prize. On the 25th anniversary of the Booker Prize, all 25 winning entries went head to head for the ‘Booker of Booker’ prize and Rushdie’s book also won that. Lee, however, is also responsible for an excellent biography of Virginia Woolf as well as books about Philip Roth and Elizabeth Bowen.