With something approaching media saturation of the Mann Booker prize, I hesitate to join the debate about whether it has sold out, become too populist, is homophobic etc. However, prompted by the interview on Today this morning with Julian Barnes about his novel The Sense of an Ending (which I have not yet read), I now hope that he will win purely on the basis of this delicious interview. He was utterly charming (smooth, secret crush type, modest and completely lacking any pomposity) and very interesting about the process of writing...... the germination of an idea for a novel, the extent of planning, how long it is going to be and how long it will take to write, how to get to the end and whether you know what is going to happen. He discussed writing about death - not the process of dying, but death itself which he is drawn to because it is not talked about enough. In his view "an eternity of non-existence" has to be worth writing about. He explained that, having been shortlisted several times before, he feels that he has "exhausted the ins and outs" of not winning and "wouldn't object to a change". After this seductive interview, he has my vote.
PS: rant time - how on earth could Alan Hollinghurst's The Stranger's Child not make the shortlist? It is a remarkable book. Read it!
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