Miranda Seymour, Naomi Kanakia and Henry Eliot

LitFestPlus: The Non-Booker 1966 Prize

In conversation with Claire Armitstead

Date: Thursday 5 November
Venue: St Mary’s Church, Petworth
Time: 5.00pm
Ticket: £19 (adults) £10 (under 18)

All ticket prices include a £2 booking fee (up to £10 per transaction).

So who might have been the writing-great who won the Booker Prize in 1966 had the prestigious award existed that year?* Would it have gone to Kingsley Amis for The Anti-Death League, John Fowles for The Magus, Jean Rhys for The Wide Sargasso Sea, Paul Scott for The Jewel in the Crown?

Chaired by former Guardian Literary Editor Claire Armitstead we are joined by critic and novelist Miranda Seymour (who has just published I, Vera); author and podcaster Henry Eliot; and live-online from the USA, American writer Naomi Kanakia, author of What’s so Great about the Great Books? to work out who might have won, why, and what makes a prize-winning novel anyway…

*The first Booker Prize was awarded in 1969 to P.H. Newby for his novel Something to Answer For.

LitFestPlus is the brand-new series of events where we go beyond our core series of author talks and invite you to participate in special sessions - walking, discussing, and investigating different aspects of the written and spoken word.