Debatable Land

The judges for the 2006 Man Booker Prize were announced today - they include Hermione and Aunt Petunia. That's Hermione Lee, a biographer and academic who will chair the panel, and actress Fiona Shaw who plays Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter films (amongst many, perhaps more impressive roles). They will be joined by The Independent's film critic Anthony Quinn, poet-turned-novelist Simon Armitage, and award-winning novelist Candia McWilliam. Ahhhh, I suppose that would be the Candia McWilliam who won the 1994 Guardian Fiction Prize with...

Debatable Land

...another one of those books I haven't read yet. It has been sitting patiently on one shelf or another since August 22nd, 1997 - I know because I've just found the receipt bookmarking page one! Oh dear.