How does being shortlisted for ‘On Chesil Beach’ compare to your first Booker nomination in 1981?
Well, to be honest, the Booker Prize in 1981was not quite so grand as it is now. I remember going to the event with what turned out to be mumps, so I was relieved not to win (Salman Rushdie won that year with Midnight’s Children) – I just wanted to go home to bed. In those days literary fiction was not quite such a matter of consuming interest – the Booker Prize is partly responsible for that. I’m delighted to be shortlisted for ‘On Chesil Beach’ – without question, it’s a great honour. The evening itself can be quite an ordeal for the writers. Writing is no more a competitive sport than reading is. I’ve often thought that the Booker Prize should be even more august, like the Nobel – do away with the shortlist, announce the winner and fiver other commended writers then have a celebratory feast. On Chesil Beach captures the innocence of the early sixties which, these days, seems impossible to imagine. Do you feel that contemporary society has become completely desensitized by sex? Socie
