Has the Man Booker prize really opened up? | Books | The Guardian

One Man Booker prize first was guaranteed from the outset this year, with the "opening up" of the award to American novelists, but other firsts or superlatives can be confidently expected whichever shortlisted author collects the £50,000 purse next month. At 72, Howard Jacobson would be the oldest ever winner (he was only the oldest since William Golding in 2010), and the first double winner to triumph with different publishers, having returned from Bloomsbury to Cape. Ali Smith would be the first Scottish woman to win - Muriel Spark was a serial losing finalist - and the first Scot of either sex to win for 20 years, since James Kelman.