‘Best of Young British Novelists 4’, by John Freeman (ed)

The literary magazine Granta had the bright idea, in 1983, of promoting 20 British novelists under 40 by announcing that they were the ‘best’ around. The first list was a resounding success, taking Granta well out of its habitual mode by featuring some very un-Granta names, like Adam Mars-Jones and A.N.Wilson. Of course, there were some novelists there that anyone could have spotted at the time, such as Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and Martin Amis, but the judges also impressively noticed Kazuo Ishiguro after a single book and Rose Tremain long before she substantially justified it. Ten years later, the exercise was repeated, with another brilliant group including A.L.Kennedy, Louis de Bernières and Alan Hollinghurst, and ten years after that too. It’s time to do it again.

The list has gained a substantial reputation for an authority beyond literary prizes, though many large talents have been excluded in the past, either through their age (Ali Smith) or working in a genre (Douglas Adams) or just short-sightedness about excellence in an unusual form.