Mary Beard describes judging the Booker prize after reading 163 novels
Mary Beard says serving as a Booker prize judge involved reading 163 novels over six months, assessing each work and defending those judgments in regular meetings. She describes the process as demanding but rewarding, with judges listening, re-reading and sometimes reaching sharply different views before producing a shortlist of six books.
Mary Beard has described her experience as a judge for this year’s Booker prize, saying she read 163 novels over six months.
She said the work involved making careful assessments, defending her judgments and checking them through further reading. Beard compared the effort with writing a book, saying it sometimes required more energy.
Beard said the judging meetings involved substantial discussion, listening and re-reading. She described the process as rewarding, noting that the judges sometimes agreed closely and sometimes differed dramatically.
She also provides a brief guide to the six shortlisted books, presented in alphabetical order.
THE QUESTIONS THIS EVENT LEAVES BEHIND
How did the judges weigh sharply different views when selecting the six shortlisted books?
What standards were used to assess the 163 novels?
How might the judging process have changed the judges’ own reading habits or literary preferences?
What perspectives or types of novels may have been underrepresented in the reading and selection process?
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GLOBAL CURIOSITY MAP · AUGUST 2026