Booker Prize Judge Infuriates Just About Everyone

Posted on January 25, 2005

The Telegraph reports that just hours after academic and biographer John Sutherland was announced as being the chairman of judges for the 2005 Booker Prize, there were numerous calls for his resignation. Sutherland, not known for his tact, violated a cardinal rule of literary prizes: the deliberations must be kept a secret. In 1999, the Booker Prize committee chose J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace as the top prize winner. There was a falling-out between Professor Sutherland, Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College, London, and three fellow judges, the feminist writer Natasha Walter, the novelist Sheena Mackay, and the literary editor Boyd Tonkin. The disagreement in the jury room over the prize was then detailed in all its glory by Sutherland in a tell-all piece he did for the Guardian. So now, people are outraged that the blabbermouth himself has been put in charge of the prestigious prize. He submitted a letter of resignation, which was then refused, according to The New York Times. So, for now, he's in. Which means we may hear all the juicy gossip as soon as the prize is awarded.