I bet fifty quid on Howard Jacobson winning the Man Booker. My original bet was actually on a ‘Yes’ vote below 40 per cent in the Scottish referendum and Bet365 then gave me £100 to bet on something else. I spent half of it on Jacobson and the other half on the Conservatives winning the last by-election. The less said on that the better.
My reasoning for plumping for Jacobson made more sense. Anti-semitism is in fashion at the moment, so a novel about a mysterious holocaust seems timely; he’s a tried and tested literary heavyweight, so there’d be no accusations of dumbing down; and he’s a man – and after wins from Hilary Mantel and Eleanor Catton, it felt time to redress the gender balance.
Besides, J seems to fit the general mood. This year the judges favoured books that were a wry take on serious matters, among them: the modern male, the socialised chimp and the potential terrorist (aren’t they all the same thing?) Most importantly, he’s British – the prize couldn’t be handed over to the Americans just yet.
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