e interview Emma Howard, the head of Capuchin, did for Stuck-in-a-Book a while back) - in that post she happened to mention that Charles Morgan's The Voyage, which Capuchin reprint, won the James Tait Memorial Prize in 1940. The only Charles Morgan book I've read is A Breeze of Morning, which I remember enjoying quite a lot - and reading in the beautiful grounds of Wilderhope Manor Youth Hostel in Shropshire - but it reminded me that I wanted to blog about the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.Perhaps it was just a blind spot in my literary knowledge, but the prize is still being awarded, and doesn't seem to get anything like the press and public attention that the Booker Prize does every year. But, for my money, looking through their respective awards over
the years, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize has been rather wiser than the Booker Prize. Certainly a more interesting selection, to my mind. And it's older than the Booker Prize too - by 50 years, since it started in 1919. (Just realised I mean Man Booker for all the times I've written Booker...) What's more, they have separate prizes for novel and for biography - I've focused on the novels, but there's lots there for those with more non-fiction-orientated minds.As usual, Wikipedia offers valuable information - follow this link for a list of JTBMP winners since 1919. Too many to talk about them all, but Stuck-in-a-Book favourites Lady Into Fox (David Garnett) and Mother and Son (Ivy Compton-Burnett) both crop up, not to mention EH Young's Miss Mole, in my tbr pile, alongside
LP Hartley, Emma Smith, DH Lawrence, Rose Macaulay, Muriel Spark, Walter de la Mare, Kate O'Brien, EM Forster, Winifred Holtby, Evelyn Waugh, Margaret Kennedy, Elizabeth Bowen, Iris Murdoch... well, go and have a look yourself.So why has it been given less attention? Perhaps because it has no official sponsor - the winner is decided by the Professor of English at Edinburgh University, assisted by his/her PhD students (how they have time to read so many modern novels, I have no idea). But while the Booker has produced many creditable winners, JTBMP's historical and intellectual credentials put it head of the field for me, and I'll be keeping an eye on it in the future.
Excellent work bringing this award into the light! The lists of the winners in both fiction and biography are extremely impressive. It's exciting to see the sorts of writers honored that you expect never will be (Ivy Compton-Burnett, for example) -- although given that standard, I'm a wee bit surprised that Henry Green never won the prize.
ReplyDeleteI didnt even know this award existed but some of the books look brilliant. I have only read one of the winners which was The Road which was an amazing book so these might have to be something I look into. I did look at all the man booker books I had read and found I prefer the shortlisted books on the whole. http://savidgereads.blogspot.com/2009/02/managed-many-of-man-bookers.html
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the Tait being more interesting than the Booker, so am glad you've discovered it. A new source of reading recommendations is always welcome, right?
ReplyDeleteI agree The James Tait Memorial Prize has had some great winners, and nobody seems to have heard of them. I think Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller is one of the best books I've ever read - but noone else has ever read it!
ReplyDeleteThe more Booker winners I read, the less impressed with ther Booker prize I become - perhaps I should read the complete Tait list instead.
This year's shortlist has just been announced.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/14/shortlists-james-tait-black-memorial-prizes
There are prizes for fiction and biography. The fiction shortlist is
A Mercy by Toni Morrison; Sputnik Caledonia by Andrew Crumey; Pilcrow by Adam Mars-Jones; Mohammed Hanif's A Case of Exploding Mangoes, and Sebastian Barry's The Secret Scripture.
I agree that Ingenious Pain is a brilliant book!
If you thought Ingenoius Pian by Andrew Miller was excellent try Oxygen by the same writer.
ReplyDeleteEven better.
Sashi.