Note from Patricia Killiard, Head of Electronic Services and Systems:
The University Library is pleased to announced that it has arranged for access to be made available to the newly-published Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online within the ‘cam.ac.uk’ domain on a trial basis, pending the establishment of a subscription service. The service is available at http://www.oxforddnb.com. Passwords are not required at this stage.
The Oxford DNB is the largest reference project ever undertaken in the humanities, including 50,000 biographies and 10,000 illustrations, and represents the work of over 10,000 specialists worldwide.
Achmat Dangor, Sarah Hall, Alan Hollinghurst, David Mitchell, Colm Tóibín
and Gerard Woodward are the six authors shortlisted for the Man Booker
Prize for Fiction 2004, the UK’s best known literary award. The shortlist
was announced by the chair of judges, Rt. Hon Chris Smith MP, at a press
conference at the Man Group offices in London today.
The six shortlisted books were chosen from a longlist of 22 and are:
Achmat Dangor Bitter fruit (Atlantic Books, £10.99)
Sarah Hall The electric Michelangelo (Faber & Faber, £10.99)
Alan Hollinghurst The line of beauty (Picador, £16.99)
David Mitchell Cloud atlas (Sceptre, £16.99)
Colm Tóibín The master (Picador, £15.99)
Gerard Woodward I’ll go to bed at noon (Chatto & Windus, £12.99)
Sarah Hall, Alan Hollinghurst, David Mitchell, and Gerard Woodward are English, Colm Tóibín is Irish, and Achmat Dangor is South African.
Most commentators were surprised at the choices for the shortlist, for example the articles Surprise all round at Booker shortlist, in The Guardian and Mitchell tipped for Booker as first-timers fail to make grade, in The Independent. David Mitchell is placed as the clear favourite to win the overall prize.
The winner will be announced on Tuesday 19 October at an awards ceremony
in the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster, London and will be
broadcast live on BBC TWO and BBC FOUR.
The Guardian First Book Award 2004 longlist was announced today. Nine titles were selected:
Ground Water by Matthew Hollis (Bloodaxe)
A Chance Meeting by Rachel Cohen (Cape)
Natasha by David Bezmozgis (Cape)
The Places In Between by Rory Stewart (Picador)
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
High Tide: News from a Warming World by Mark Lynas (Flamingo)
Becoming Strangers by Louise Dean (Scribner)
Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of Human Body by Armand Marie Leroi (HarperCollins)
The Flood by David Maine (Canongate)
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and Becoming Strangers were also selected recently for the Man Booker Prize 2004 longlist.
Also commended were:
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer (Canongate)
Some Great Thing by Colin McAdam (Jonathan Cape)
How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer (Viking)
The Longshoreman by Richard Shelton (Atlantic)
