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Man Booker Prize Makes Historic Judgement

Bernardine Evaristo and Margaret Atwood with their Man Booker Prize

The 2019 Man Booker Prize winners have been revealed – with a plot twist.

This year saw the prize split between two authors – Bernardine Evaristo and Margaret Atwood. The last dual prize winners were Michael Ondaatje and Barry Unsworth in 1992, and previously Natalie Gordimer and Stanley Middleton in 1974.

Established in 1969, the historic prize has only ever seen 2 other years go to multiple winners. The rules were altered in 1993, stating the award ‘may not be divided or withheld’.

Despite this, Peter Florence, judge chairman, said both books ‘have urgent things to say’, adding that both are ‘wonderfully compelling, page-turning thrillers, which can speak to the most literary audience, to readers who maybe are reading one, or this case I hope two books a year, and can speak at different levels to all sorts of different readerships’.

Margaret Atwood’s winning novel, The Testaments, is a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, set 15 years after the events of the first book. Atwood is the fourth winner to win the prize twice.

Bernardine Evaristo’s winning novel, Girl, Woman, Other, is her eighth novel and follows 12 characters through several decades of life in the UK. Florence highlighted Evaristo’s work as ‘a wonderful spectrum of black British women today. This book is ground-breaking’.

Custom Awards You Can’t Put Down

The Man Booker Prize is a simple, statement design, suitable for an iconic prize.

Each tablet is solid acrylic, offering a sturdy and contemporary finish. Print can be colour-matched for each years’ event theme. This is particularly useful in allowing for consistency in design year-on-year, without compromising on the evolution of the brand.

Replicas and additions can be customised post-event; for the Man Booker Prize, this involves a ‘spine’ print for the winning book title and the author’s name.