Week in...
It's time to get reading for the Man Booker Prize, which will be awarded on 6 October. But before that happens, though, there's the announcing of the shortlist on 8 September. Meanwhile, the 13-book longlist contains some of the biggest names in the writing business: William Trevor, A. S. Byatt, J M Coetzee... but Rainy Day is placing a big bet on a new face and an excerpt from the lucky author's work will be revealed here tomorrow.
Trivia: From the Man Booker Prize FAQ: "The question which every journalist asks every Man Booker Prize winner is, 'What are you planning to spend your prize money on?' There have been many different answers over the three decades of the prize. A.S.Byatt, winning with Possession in 1990, announced that she now had the money she needed to build her longed-for swimming pool in Provence." Apropos, H. L. Mencken used to say that any scribbler who found writing too arduous ought to spend a week on an assembly line, where they'll discover what work is really like.
