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The Queen Consort, Dua Lipa and Duker to join 'new look' Booker Prize ceremony
The Queen Consort, singer Dua Lipa and comedian Sophie Duker will take part in this year’s Booker Prize ceremony, the first fully in-person since 2019, as part of a “new look, vibrant winner ceremony, designed to celebrate and connect this year’s Booker writers with a wide range of readers”.
This year’s event will take place at London’s Roundhouse on 17th October and will be broadcast live as part of a “Front Row” special on BBC Radio 4 presented by Samira Ahmed from 9:15 p.m. to 10 p.m., with TV coverage expected to run on “News at Ten” and news channels.
Shortlisted authors NoViolet Bulawayo, Percival Everett, Shehan Karunatilaka, Claire Keegan and Elizabeth Strout will all be in attendance, with Alan Garner attending virtually.
Ahmed will speak with this year’s chair of judges Neil MacGregor before he announces the winner of the £50,000 prize. The winner will be presented with the Booker Prize trophy by Camilla, The Queen Consort, in one of her first public engagements since the change in reign. Last year’s winner Damon Galgut will pass on the baton by presenting the winner with their prize money.
The evening will be hosted by stand-up comedian and writer Sophie Duker. Guests include Roundhouse resident artist and Amy Winehouse Foundation alumna India Shan, who will be treating guests to her jazz-inflected tones, as heard on recent single “Don’t Wanna”.
As part of the "Front Row" programme, Dua Lipa, a world-renowned singer-songwriter but also a passionate advocate of books, will deliver a keynote on how a love of reading has shaped her imagination, her identity and her career as a global pop superstar.
Meanwhile, Ahmed will interview British-Turkish author Elif Shafak, who appeared on the Booker Prize shortlist in 2019 with Salman Rushdie, about what the attack on his life means for writers around the world, and the ceremony will also acknowledge the extraordinary achievement of the late double-Booker winner Hilary Mantel.
The event will also be attended by the winners of the inaugural Booker Prize Book Club Challenge. The Booker Prize recently partnered with national charity the Reading Agency to select six groups to read and discuss a different book on the 2022 shortlist and compete for places at the winner ceremony for the first time. The winning group will be chosen by the Booker Prize 2022 judging panel.
The shortlist will be brought to life by Mermade Films, which created black and white films of each book to be shown at the ceremony. Directed by Kevin Thomas, each features an extract from a shortlisted book, read by performers Nikki Amuka-Bird for Glory (Chatto & Windus), David Harewood for The Trees (Influx Press), Jarvis Cocker for Treacle Walker (Fourth Estate), Prasanna Puwanarajah for The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (Sort Of Books), Sharon Horgan for Small Things Like These (Faber) and Anna Friel for Oh William! (Viking).
This year, for the first time in decades, the original Booker Prize trophy is also being reinstated in memory of its creator, the beloved children’s author and illustrator Jan Pieńkowski, who died in February this year.
The trophy was originally commissioned by Booker Prize founder Tom Maschler from Pieńkowski, who based it on an art deco lamp he found in a junk shop in Portobello Market. It was first awarded to P. H. Newby. This year’s trophy is based on a 3D scan of the one awarded to Newby and will be rematerialised as a 3D print at a height of 38cm and painted gold. The winner will in due course receive the new trophy in gold-coloured pewter.
After the ceremony, Booker Prize readers will be invited to take part in a competition to name the new trophy.
Also to be presented on the night are this year’s six bespoke bound books, created for the shortlisted authors by individual makers who are members of Designer Bookbinders. These have been created by Kaori Maki (Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo), Kate Holland (The Trees by Percival Everett), Dominic Riley (Treacle Walker by Alan Garner), Lester Capon (The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka), Angela James (Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan), and Rachel Ward-Sale (Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout).
