The verdict

The Booker Readings event we went to last night was excellent. We all enjoyed listening to the six very different authors reading from their books, talking a little about their writing and answering questions. It was well organised and there was a large and interested audience. A really good evening and it was nice that as a family we had been reading the same books and could talk about them.

Given time to read on the train, I have now read and enjoyed all six books and would recommend any of them as worth reading. Details of them are here. Five of them are pictured; one (The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton) is missing, as a daughter has it. Their dog decided to try it, but apparently only got as far as examining and chewing up the dust jacket! I would love to see that particular one win the prize. It's a weighty book at over 800 pages and sometimes you do wonder whether you are ever going to get to the end. But it is a worthwhile read; a carefully crafted story set in New Zealand at the time of the Gold Rush.

However, it is most likely that Harvest will actually take the prize. It has been favourite from the beginning. It split the generations with us, the younger ones not liking it at all, whilst we did. Jim Crace was quite a character last night, freely admitting that he makes historical things up and why not indeed! Testament of Mary is a tiny book with a big idea - Mary, mother of Jesus tells of her grief and her anger in the days after losing her son. This one might just make it past the others, despite its size. We’ll find out tomorrow.