Simon Trewin

Sir Andrew Motion, former Poet Laureate, is today (Wednesday 18th November) announced as Chair of the judges for the 2010 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

Andrew Motion is Professor of Creative Writing at Royal Holloway College, University of London and co-founder of the online Poetry Archive.  He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1999 for a ten year term. He has received numerous awards for his writing. His group study The Lamberts won the Somerset Maugham Award and his authorised life of Philip Larkin won the Whitbread Prize for Biography.  Andrew Motion was knighted for his services to literature in 2009.

Andrew Motion comments, ‘It’s an honour to be asked to chair the Man Booker Prize, which has consistently been a focus for the best fiction of recent years.  It’s an exciting challenge too: a lot of difficult decisions lie ahead.

I greatly look forward to a year of reading voraciously.’

The longlist, ‘The Booker Dozen’ – the 12 (or 13) titles under serious consideration for the prize – will be announced in July 2010.  The shortlist of six books will be announced in September 2010.  The Man Booker Prize 2010 winner will be announced on the BBC from London’s Guildhall at an awards ceremony on Tuesday 12th October 2010.