Thursday, January 26, 2012

2011 Challenge: Battle of the Prizes, British Version, Wrap-Up



2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version: January 1, 2011 to January 31, 2012

This challenge pits winners of the English Man Booker Prize against winners of the Scottish James Tait Black Memorial Prize in a British Version of the Battle of the Prizes.  Good thing it ran until the end of this month, so I could finish.

Click here for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, British Version.

Click here for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, American Version.

I read four books for the 2011 challenge, two Booker winners and two James Tait Black winners.  I drew no big conclusions about the two prizes, other than the James Tait Black prize is no "me too" award -- it stands on its own.  Both prizes have been around for many years, but only three books have won both. Also, I have a general, perhaps unsubstantiated, feeling that the Bookers get to be more famous but that the Blacks are undercover gems.

MY BOOKS


Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Booker; reviewed here)

Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd (Black; reviewed here)

Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth (Booker; reviewed here)

The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Sparks (Black; reviewed here)