The Man Booker Prize.

The winner of the Man Booker Prize 2012 has been announced and is Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel – which makes her the first British person and the first woman to win the prize twice, having won it before with Wolf Hall in 2009,

Earlier this month I took part in The Booker Debate at the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil. This is an annual event run jointly by the Yeovil Community Arts Association (YCAA) and the local branch of Waterstone’s. A panel of six guests each review one of the shortlisted books and discussion is then thrown open to the audience.

I was, once again, invited to participate on the panel, and I have to say that this year’s debate was the best yet. There were a number of book groups in the audience who had read the shortlist and the varied views led to some lively discussions!

My book was Bring up the Bodies which I thought was superb. However, not all the panellists felt the same way about their allocated books, and the audience didn’t necessarily agree! More fuel for a lively debate!

And it was great to meet up with fellow authors Sarah Lean (A Dog called Homeless) and James Long (Ferney).

I’m so pleased that Bring up the Bodies won. In my opinion it was well deserved and if you haven’t read it I can strongly recommend you do!