Martin V
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ontheprize.co.uk
Martin V
@ontheprize.co.uk
140 followers 440 following 39 posts
Books (Eyes On The Prize - Booker etc blog; ontheprize.co.uk), Music (Data/Insight), Beer, etc.
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ontheprize.co.uk
Merry Christmas to all except whoever at the BBC decided a few years to deny us the small joy of Xmas Top of the Pops.
December 25, 2024 at 2:42 PM
ontheprize.co.uk
Love this sort of data. Not sure how much it actually tells you beyond confirming the obvious though (I.e. Love Actually is massively Tory)
luketryl.bsky.social Luke Tryl @luketryl.bsky.social · Dec 10
As featured on Rest is Entertainment our @moreincommonuk.bsky.social polling of how Brits favourite Christmas films breakdown by voting intention. Labour holds landslide leads with fans of Elf & the Grinch. Tories storm ahead with Love Actually and Reform are ahead by 5 points with fans of Scrooged.
December 11, 2024 at 10:06 PM
ontheprize.co.uk
Finished this, loved it. Excellent debut. www.ontheprize.co.uk/blog/we-pret...
December 10, 2024 at 3:13 PM
ontheprize.co.uk
Have to admit I did a double take at SJP being on here. But apparently she's a book publisher now. Who knew? (Not I, despite having read a book she's apparently published)
thebookerprizes.com The Booker Prizes @thebookerprizes.com · Dec 10
We’re thrilled to reveal the #BookerPrize2025 judging panel.✨

Roddy Doyle will act as chair of judges, and will be joined by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Sarah Jessica Parker, @chrispower.bsky.social and Kiley Reid.

thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-l...
The Booker Prize 2025 | The Booker Prizes
The judges for the Booker Prize 2025 are announced, as the prize opens for submissions from publishers
thebookerprizes.com
December 10, 2024 at 10:35 AM
Reposted by Martin V
john-self.bsky.social
"In the course of my conversation with Helen she listed her criteria for a good novel, and the last of them was 'It must be ideologically correct'."

David Lodge, Booker chair in 1989, thought Amis's London Fields a frontrunner for the prize. Here's when he realised it wouldn't even get shortlisted.
At the June meeting we drew up a list of forty-seven novels which were deemed worthy of serious consideration, and at the first September meeting we whittled these down to seventeen to be considered for the shortlist. During that time I had phone conversations with both Maggie and Helen. Maggie wanted an assurance that the shortlist would not be decided by a numerical majority of only 3 to 2. I could not give it, but reiterated what I had said at the beginning of the process, that I hoped we could reach a consensus by discussion. In the course of my conversation with Helen she listed her criteria for a good novel, and the last of them was, 'It must be ideologically correct'. I was so startled by this declaration that I did not challenge it, as I should have done. At this time the phrase 'politically correct' had not yet reached Britain from America, and when it did so it carried the scare quotes which allowed it to be used ironically by sophisticated left-wingers as well as scornfully by outraged right-wingers. 'Ideologically correct' was a much more inflexible concept which one associated with Stalinist Russia or Mao's China. In my view a responsible literary critic should always try to suspend his or her ideological principles and prejudices when reading a text to assess its literary merit. I prepared carefully for the shortlist meeting, and had a folder in my notes on all seventeen books, arranged alphabetically by author: The first of these was Amis, Martin. As mentioned earlier, I thought his novel Money had been unjustly excluded from the shortlist by the judges in 1984. I was pleased when I heard that he had a new novel out this year, called London Fields, and looked forward eagerly to reading it. Having done so I described it in my notes as: Notable for dense, imaginative and expressive use of language, summoning up a wasteland vision of urban and global entropy. Brilliant metaphors and similes. Often blackly funny. Cunning interweaving of motifs and symbolism. MA's preoccupations with pornography & Swiftian relish of disgusting behaviour manifest in earlier work continue here, but much more under control. Keith is an extraordinary creation - totally loathsome, yet credible and weirdly vital... The flatness and unchangingness of the other main characters is the only arguable flaw in this generally brilliant achievement, and perhaps it is a little too long for its own good. But a frontrunner. The shortlist meeting took place in the utilitarian premises of Book Trust in south-west London. We sat at a rectangular Formica-topped table with myself at the head, Martyn to one side and slightly behind me, the two men to my left, and the two women on the right. I began by proposing that we should get an idea of our collective preferences by going through the seventeen novels one by one, each person classifying them as 'shortlist', 'hold' or 'eliminate', and I had prepared a chart to record these responses, but Ed suggested that instead we should each simply say what our current six choices for the shortlist were, and this won support from the others. At the end of the first round everyone had chosen Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, and Rose Tremain's Restoration, and they were accordingly shortisted, Both Ed White and David Profumo had nominated London Fields, though they were less enthusiastic than I in giving their reasons. I pointed out that no other novel in the remainder we were now considering had achieved three votes in the first round, and proposed that it should therefore be shortlisted. At this Maggie launched a fierce attack on the book as morally and formally flawed: seriously confused, banal, unconvincing on nuclear catastrophe and pollution, and irredeemably sexist. It sounded like a prepared speech, lasted for ten minutes or more, and was remembered later by Martyn Goff in an interview as 'the time when Maggie Gee handbagged David Lodge'. She was supported unreservedly by Helen McNeil. The import of the telephone conversations I had had with each of them was now clear. I did my best to defend Amis's novel, but Maggie and Helen were adamant. Ed said that as I was chairman they should accept my casting vote in Amis's favour, at which Maggie looked distressed and said she would be very unhappy if London Fields went through. David Profumo said that he didn't think we could shortlist a novel to which the two women judges were so strongly opposed. It was 12.30 and we still had only two books on the shortlist. I put London Fields on hold and suggested we considered Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye, which had been commended with some qualifications in the first round, and it was agreed that it should be shortlisted. With that accomplished, we broke for lunch.
December 7, 2024 at 9:42 AM
ontheprize.co.uk
Quite intrigued by this as a concept. Looks like they've got the right lineup for it too.
December 5, 2024 at 12:53 PM
Reposted by Martin V
quantick.bsky.social
STOP TELLING ME WHAT TO DO
December 3, 2024 at 6:50 PM
ontheprize.co.uk
Great read (via @curiouslyp.bsky.social) - agree with most of it especially the love for Sheffield and SMOD
December 1, 2024 at 1:57 PM
ontheprize.co.uk
It’s the most wonderful time for a beer (or 24)
Ghost Whale advent calendar on a table. Many beers in a box.
November 30, 2024 at 7:31 PM
ontheprize.co.uk
Aside from all the usual (valid) debate, surely this is just a right old mess?
mrdiscopop.bsky.social Mark Savage @mrdiscopop.bsky.social · Nov 25
Initial thoughts on the new Band Aid megamix - schmaltzy, effective, and destined to be overshadowed by an argument about colonial tropes.

Also, am I right in thinking they've used none of the vocals from Band Aid II? No justice for Big Fun or Sonia!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Band Aid 40: Charity megamix piles on the schmaltz but captures spirit of hope
The anniversary remix features vocals from across the decades, but critics argue about its lyrics.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 25, 2024 at 10:46 AM
ontheprize.co.uk
Having enjoyed Creation Lake on this year's Booker shortlist, I've dipped in to a little more Kushner via her 2018-shortlisted The Mars Room, which is probably even better (if slightly less bonkers)

www.ontheprize.co.uk/blog/mars-ro...
The Mars Room (2018) by Rachel Kusher - 2018 Booker Prize Shortlisted — Eyes on the Prize
Reading the 2018 novel by Rachel Kushner, who was Booker Prize shortlisted for the second time in 2024 with Creation Lake. This was her first appearance on the shortlist.
www.ontheprize.co.uk
November 23, 2024 at 2:25 PM
ontheprize.co.uk
Incredible book which this makes me want to reread (I never reread)
luketurner.bsky.social Luke Turner @luketurner.bsky.social · Nov 22
Currently re-reading Slaves of Solitude for a thing and absolutely adoring it once more. I’m not sure anyone has captured the awfulness of morning, if you are not a morning person, better than Patrick Hamilton does here
November 22, 2024 at 9:52 PM
Reposted by Martin V
erolalkan.bsky.social
Moth Club is one of the very best small venues in the whole of the UK. The fact that it's under threat is appalling. Please sign.

www.change.org/p/moth-club-...
Sign the Petition
Moth Club Faces Second Building Planning Application
www.change.org
November 22, 2024 at 1:21 PM
ontheprize.co.uk
Apparently I’m 8 years old. I maintain this is a surprisingly decent lineup!
ryxcommar.bsky.social Senior PowerPoint Engineer @ryxcommar.bsky.social · Nov 21
Your real age is 70 minus the number of musicians you recognize playing at Coachella 2025
November 22, 2024 at 7:56 AM
ontheprize.co.uk
Not a surprise but great to see regardless!
November 21, 2024 at 8:15 AM
ontheprize.co.uk
Not that I would remotely ever go to this festival (drinking pens lol) but this looks like a fairly major improvement on recent years at a glance?
brooklynvegan.bsky.social BrooklynVegan @brooklynvegan.bsky.social · Nov 20
Coachella's 2025 lineup has officially arrived, with Misfits, Charli XCX, Lady Gaga, Green Day, Missy Elliott, Kraftwerk, Beth Gibbons & more brooklynvegan.com/coachella-20...
November 20, 2024 at 10:34 PM
ontheprize.co.uk
Magnetic Fields @npr.org Tiny Desk, lovely stuff. Taking me back to the beautiful Barbican shows a few months back youtu.be/wnFQn7GD1rg?...
The Magnetic Fields: Tiny Desk Concert
YouTube video by NPR Music
youtu.be
November 20, 2024 at 10:01 PM
ontheprize.co.uk
Really great article looking at some of the books that were shortlisted for the Booker in the 70s but didn’t win. Saving this for later as there are MANY of these I need to check out…
john-self.bsky.social John Self @john-self.bsky.social · Nov 19
Which judge resigned because the books were "mere pornography"? Which author, according to another judge, "puts one off sex"? Which book did Saul Bellow dismiss as a "tinkling teacup thing"? Who refused to give the prize to a book about cannibalism?

I wrote about the Booker Prize in the 1970s:
The Booker in the 1970s: 10 novels that are well worth rediscovering, five decades later | The Booker Prizes
The Booker shortlists of the 1970s are of exceptionally high quality, and while some of the novels may have fallen out of fashion, they’re essential volumes for any keen reader’s library
thebookerprizes.com
November 19, 2024 at 9:18 PM
ontheprize.co.uk
Here is an album I am currently enjoying which came out last week on @stonesthrow.bsky.social - for fans of slick synthy pop, moderately quirky but largely just very good tunes open.spotify.com/album/0F0HgZ...
Young-Girl Forever
Sofie Royer · Album · 2024 · 12 songs
open.spotify.com
November 19, 2024 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by Martin V
martinlt.bsky.social
It’s that time of year again… Only a few days left to manipulate your Spotify Wrapped… 😅
November 19, 2024 at 12:41 PM
ontheprize.co.uk
I know there are a lot of strong opinions on AI on here but this is an interesting story to follow for both books and music.
musically.com Music Ally @musically.com · Nov 19
HarperCollins lets authors opt in to its AI licensing deals

Author and comedian Daniel Kibblesmith isn’t impressed with book publisher HarperCollins’ new licensing deal with an unnamed AI company. “Abominable,” was his one-word verdict in a post on Bluesky sharing details of an email about the…
HarperCollins lets authors opt in to its AI licensing deals
Author and comedian Daniel Kibblesmith isn’t impressed with book publisher HarperCollins’ new licensing deal with an unnamed AI company. “Abominable,” was his one-word verdict in a post on Bluesky sharing details of an email about the deal from his agent. However, when viewed in the context of the debate within the music industry about rightsholders and musicians, the publisher’s approach has some positive aspects.
musically.com
November 19, 2024 at 10:31 AM
ontheprize.co.uk
Just started this upcoming debut via Netgalley. Written in impressively well rendered Doncaster dialect. Having grown up a few miles down the road from Donny, in the same era (roughly), it’s quite the evocative experience so far… #booksky www.penguin.co.uk/books/460689...
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh
A gut-punch novel of girlhood in early noughties Yorkshire from a blazing new voice 'Blistering, brilliant, savage and smart' EIMEAR McBRIDE 'Unforgettable...a wondrous, luminous novel' NANA KWAME AD...
www.penguin.co.uk
November 19, 2024 at 8:56 AM
ontheprize.co.uk
Here is an intersection of my interests in one post, by further way of introduction!
themildonessuede.bsky.social The Mild Ones (SUEDE Fan Group) @themildonessuede.bsky.social · Nov 18
On November 12, 2024, #BrettAnderson attended the #BookerPrize 📕 ceremony at Old Billingsgate, London. The prestigious event celebrates the best English-language fiction, with this year’s prize awarded to Orbital by Samantha Harvey.

📸 Photos by 李世惠/See Li

#TheMildOnes #MOs
November 18, 2024 at 9:29 AM
ontheprize.co.uk
Should all of that have been one thread? Probably. Still learning! Anyway hi, this place seems nice so far.
November 18, 2024 at 8:38 AM
ontheprize.co.uk
Audio me can occasionally be found waffling about literary prizes on the lovely Book Club Review podcast (who I’m hoping will join us here soon!) www.thebookclubreview.co.uk/portfolio/it...
The Booker Prize 2024 • Episode #166
Curious about the Booker Prize 2024? Wondering if the shortlisted novels live up to the hype? In our latest episode Kate and Laura are joined by returning guests Phil, Sarah and Martin to dive deep in...
www.thebookclubreview.co.uk
November 18, 2024 at 8:37 AM