Odds have just been announced as the long-list has been released. The shortlist of six is to be announced on Tuesday 6th September with the winner to be announced on Tuesday 16th October.
1735: William Hill have installed former winner Ian McEwen's book, 'On Chesil Beach', as the 3/1 favourite to win this year's Man Booker Prize, following the announcement of the 12-strong long-list.
"Despite the initial controversy over whether this is a novel or novella I was always confident that it would be long-listed, and I believe it is a worthy favourite and probably one of the best Booker contenders of recent years," said Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe, who has been compiling Booker odds for the past quarter of a century.
Hills make Nicola Barker's 'Darkmans' 5/1 second favourite and also offer ; 7/1 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' by Mohsin Hamid; 8/1 Catherine O'Flynn's 'What Was Lost'; 9/1 A N Wilson's 'Winnie & Wolf' ;10/1 Indra Sinha's 'Animal's People'; 10/1 'Consolation' by Michael Redhill; 11/1 Anne Enright's 'The Gathering'; 12/1 Nikita Lalwani's 'Gifted'; 14/1 Edward Docx's 'Self Help; 14/1 'The Gift Of Rain' by Tan Twan Eng; 16/1 'The Welsh Girl' by Peter Ho Davies; 20/1 'Mister Pip' by Lloyd Jones.
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Last year at least one of the judges must have let slip to a few of their betting friends as to who they thought the winner would be/will be as you don't get an avalanche of bets on an outsider on a shortlist of six especially on the eve of the ceremony unless you know who's going to win.