Bring up the Bodies book cover

Honorary Graduate on Man Booker shortlist

Honorary Graduate Hilary Mantel CBE (Hon DLitt 2011) has been included in the shortlist for this year’s prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction, for the sequel to her bestseller Wolf Hall.

She will find out in October whether her work Bring Up the Bodies is named the winner of the 2012 prize.

The six books were chosen by a panel of judges chaired by Sir Peter Stothard, Editor of the Times Literary Supplement. The shortlisted books were selected from the longlist of 12, announced in July.

Sir Peter said:

“Goodness, madness and bewildering urban change are among the themes of this year’s longlist. In an extraordinary year for fiction the ‘Man Booker Dozen’ proves the grip that the novel has on our world. We did not set out to reject the old guard but, after a year of sustained critical argument by a demanding panel of judges, the new has come powering through.”

Peter Stothard is joined on the 2012 Man Booker Prize for Fiction judging panel by: Dinah Birch, academic and literary critic; Amanda Foreman, historian, writer and broadcaster; Dan Stevens, actor and star of Downton Abbey and Bharat Tandon, academic, writer and reviewer.

The shortlist is:

Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists (Myrmidon Books)

Deborah Levy, Swimming Home (And Other Stories/Faber & Faber)

Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies (Fourth Estate)

Alison Moore, The Lighthouse (Salt)

Will Self, Umbrella (Bloomsbury)

Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis (Faber & Faber)

Date: 9 August 2012