Booker prize-winners

This year's Man Booker award winner was announced tonight: The sense of an ending by Julian Barnes.

I've read a few Booker prize-winners over the years, some great, some left me wondering what all the fuss was about.

The three at the front of the picture were all shortlisted for the 1993 'Booker of Bookers' award - which went to Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. I read the three at the front this summer having found two of them in our holiday home in Portugal and a third on the large pile by my bedside, where it had resided for about 20 years. They were all OK, but I wouldn't whole-heartedly recommend any of them.

The others shortlisted for the 'Booker of Bookers' were Pat Barker's The Ghost Road and Nadine Gordimer's The Conservationist. I suppose I'd better read these as well.

The three at the back were Booker winners that weren't shortlisted for the 'Booker of Bookers' - I loved all of these, all utterly different from each other.

It all goes to show how difficult it is to recognise a contemporary masterpiece.

This link takes you to the full list of Booker prize-winners since 1969