Wolf Hall sequel favourite to win the 2012 Man Booker Prize

Hilary Mantel, who won the 2009 Man Booker Prize for her novel Wolf Hall, has made the longlist for this year’s prize with its sequel Bring Up the Bodies. The bookmakers’ favourite to win the 2012 prize, Bring Up the Bodies is the second part of a trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to Henry VIII and concentrates on the three weeks in which Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn, is arrested, tried and executed for treason. Last year’s longlist was criticized for ‘dumbing down’ the prize after judges shunned the literary elite and admitted they had opted for a shortlist which was ‘accessible’. This year’s list is equally controversial with four debut novelists being longlisted at the expense of established writers and former Booker Prize winners such as Ian McEwan, Pat Barker, Howard Jacobson, Peter Carey and John Banville. The 12 nominees, which include Will Self, Michael Frayn and Deborah Levy, were selected from 145 titles. The shortlist of six authors will be announced on 11 September, with the winner of the £50,000 prize named on 16 October. Last year's winner, The Sense of An Ending by Julian Barnes, went on to sell more than 100,000 copies, while Wolf Hall has sold over 200,000 copies.

The Booker longlist:  
The Yips by Nicola Barker  
The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman  
Philida by André Brink
 The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng  
Skios by Michael Frayn  
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce  
Swimming Home by Deborah Levy  
Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
 The Lighthouse by Alison Moore  
Umbrella by Will Self  
Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil  
Communion Town by Sam Thompson
For further information see http://www.themanbookerprize.com/