THE BOOKER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024
We are excited to inform you that the shortlist for the Booker Prize 2024 was announced yesterday, featuring five women and authors from five countries.
For over three decades, Fellows from Designer Bookbinders have created bespoke editions of each title on the Booker shortlist. This year is no different and we are pleased to inform you that the six binders for 2024 are: Glenn Bartley, Nicky Oliver, Kate Holland, Glenn Malkin, Richard Beadsmoore and Mark Cockram.
One of the highlights of the annual Booker Prize season comes when each of the shortlisted authors is presented with a unique, hand-bound edition of their nominated works. These extraordinary, one-of-a-kind books are designed and made between the shortlist announcement and winner ceremony. In the short period between shortlist announcement and the award ceremony, the binders must read, design and produce a hand bound fine binding, together with a protective container, for presentation to each of the authors. A process which might normally take three to four months or more has to be telescoped into as many weeks, but it is this which makes the commission such an interesting one for those taking part.
There are at least twenty-five stages in the hand binding of a book – from the decoration of the edges of the pages to the final lettering – and the binder will have spent about one hundred and fifty hours on the work by the time of completion. For those involved in this collaboration, the work is most rewarding; an opportunity to read and interpret some of the finest novels of our time, and, of course, it is hoped that the authors will derive as much pleasure from being presented with the finished results.
Whilst we hear the rustle of pages being read, ideas being formulated and design ideas being scribbled onto paper by our six Fellows, stay tuned to find out who has been assigned to which book!
For more details of our involvement with the Booker Prize for Fiction please visit our website here, or visit the Booker Prize website here.
