Books blogBooker prize This article is more than 11 years oldOpen thread: Who are the great modern English prose writers?
This article is more than 11 years oldIn pronouncing Hilary Mantel the winner of the Man Booker prize 2012, the chairman of the judges declared Mantel is 'greatest modern English prose writer' but which other authors are in contention for such an accolade?It is official. Now with two Man Booker prizes to her name, Hilary Mantel is the greatest English prose writer publishing today. And before you start contradicting me in the comment thread, I'm not just peddling the opinion of the Guardian books desk, or Sir Peter Stothard, the chairman of the Booker judges who last night pronounced Mantel the 'greatest modern English prose writer', I'm paraphrasing you, for you have said as much yourselves:
Never mind the Booker. It's the Nobel that honours a body of work. In Mantel's case, they can bring up her bodies of work and behold the fact that the styles and concepts are distinct and that each is brilliant in its own right. Add to that her fine journalism and literary criticism and I'm left to wonder if her writer's DNA is fashioned out of string theory strands.
Hurrah! Well- deserved. And as Justine Jordan has said, she has earned the Booker, and not got it, in the past. What has happened now is only a belated crowning of a rare and precious talent.
Wolf Hall's story - that grand, bloodstained and unforgettable period of Queen Katherine's fall and Anne Boleyn's rise - is of course well known but very well told; in fact, I doubt there's ever been a better English historical novel. In truth, there's almost too much to praise: every character, no matter how minor, is memorable
Well, perhaps AggieH, greymalkin or StevenJensen might take issue with me for putting words in their mouths, but there's certainly a great deal of praise for Mantel's work amongst our books community, and for all of her novels, not just the two most recent.
So, Mantel's greatness is not in question, not on this thread anyway, no, the question here is, which other living writers rivals Mantel for the title of the 'greatest modern English prose writer'?
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