Associate Professor Philip Hensher’s novel The Northern Clemency has been named a shortlist candidate for the 2008 Man Booker Prize, one of the most coveted literary awards for new English literature. Hensher’s is among a group of six other authors whose work is being considered for the prestigious Prize which is to be awarded on Tuesday 14 October.
Philip Hensher said: ‘Northern Clemency is the story of two families in Sheffield between 1974 and 1994, and in a larger sense about the changes in English society over that period. It's principally about the middle-class experience of political upheaval, but mostly about a group of characters who I grew to know and love, as I hope the reader will. Though it isn't an autobiographical novel, the contours of the story echo quite a lot of my own family's story, and I think what I found both most challenging and enjoyable was to try to recapture the texture of life in the recent past, and to set out something which was very familiar to me in a way that would be fresh and detailed for the reader, who might not be familiar with the setting (I just heard today that it's being translated into Romanian, for instance).’
He added: ‘I'm obviously very pleased that the panel have enjoyed it. These nominations help internationally, and increasingly with sales. In more general terms, it means a lot to a publisher and the very many people who work on a book of this sort, who can rightly feel that recognition of this sort reflects on their hard work as well as the author's - in particular, on the editorial process which, in this case, undertook a large number of refinements to the serious improvement of the manuscript.’
Henshr served ase a Booker judge himself in 2001 and has written five other novels, including Kitchen Venom which won the Somerset Maugham Award and the 2002 Booker-longlisted The Mulberry Empire. He is a columnist for The Independent, arts critic for The Spectator and a Granta Best of Young British Novelist.
For the complete article visit www.exeter.ac.uk/news/newsbooker.shtml
For information on the Man Booker Prize and this year’s shortlisted authors visit www.themanbookerprize.com/
Content added September 30, 2008
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