The winner of the 'Lost Booker Prize' has been announced. JG Farrell has been honoured for 'Troubles', a novel set in the 1919 Irish War of Independence, cited as having 'lasting quality'. Indeed it is this 'lasting quality' which makes the award all the more special, as the novel was originally published in 1970. Due to changes in the rules of the award, no book published in that year was ever elegible to win a Booker Prize, and it was following this discovery that the 'Lost Booker Prize' was launched. Farrell's work beat off opposition from Nina Bawden and Dame Muriel Sparkes to scoop the coveretd award with 38% of the public vote. Yet sadly, Farrell died in his early 40s in 1979, never able to see the achievement which he deservedly won.
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