Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Subcontinental drift

Life is full of unsolved mysteries. What caused the extinction of the dinosaurs? Who killed JFK? Does the Bosun-Higgs particle exist? What did Margaret Hodge have on Blair and Brown, and so on.

But here's another question that's had me scratching my head over the last few hours or so: Why is the Man Booker Prize almost invariably won by a book about India?

Answers on a postcard in the comments please...

free web site hit counter

4 comments:

David Gladwin said...

Perhaps it's because India's what spineless middle class ninnies like to read about. Some of them think we've still got the Empire, you know.

But awards - be they for books, films, music or television - are all about sales. They have no bearing on the quality of the product.

Letters From A Tory said...

Well we give India £2 billion in international aid, even though they are one of the richest countries in the world, so why not give them a book prize as well?

David Gladwin said...

On that basis (see letters from a tory's post above) I'm expecting Paul to suggest that we should be dishing out a few book prizes to Scottish writers...

Anonymous said...

Higgs-boson.

A bosun is the practical chap on the boat, he used to be in charge of the rigging and was a very powerful figure.

In modern sail training the bosun usually an attractive young female brought aboard not for her maintenance abilities but for the depraved skipper to screw.

The dinosaurs didn't completely die out - their descendents are still with us as birds.