Oft-Shortlisted Bainbridge Given Posthumous Booker [1]
The Man Booker Prize has created another one-off award [3]. Intended to celebrate the life's work of the late Beryl Bainbridge, who had been a finalist for the prestigious British award five times but never won, the Best of Beryl [4] prize will call out the most Booker-worthy of her shortlisted titles, as determined by public vote [5].
Voters can choose between Bainbridge's novels Master Georgie (1998), Every Man for Himself (1996), An Awfully Big Adventure (1990), the Guardian Fiction Award–winning The Bottle Factory Outing (1974), and The Dressmaker (1973). (Incidentally, her final novel, The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress, forthcoming in June from Little, Brown, is ineligible for a posthumous Booker nomination—only living writers are considered for the honor.) The Best of Beryl title will be announced in April.
"Beryl did want to win the Booker very much despite her protests to the contrary," says Bainbridge's daughter, Jojo Davies. "We are glad she is finally able to become the bride, no longer the bridesmaid."
Meanwhile, the Guardian's Michael Holroyd [6] takes a more skeptical stance on what exactly the award is celebrating.
In the video below, BBC News takes a look back at the life of Bainbridge at the time of her death last July.