Eleanor Catton is youngest winner of the Man Booker Prize.
Eleanor Catton is youngest winner of the Man Booker Prize.
Eleanor CattonAuthor1985
Youngest winner of the Man Booker Prize
At 28, Canadian-born New Zealander Eleanor Catton became the youngest winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for her second novel, The Luminaries. The 832-page book, a Victorian mystery tale set during the NZ gold rush, was also thelongest work to win one of literature's most prestigious prizes.
Catton wasn't the first New Zealander to win the Man Booker; that was Keri Hulme whose novel The Bone People won in 1985 — the year Catton was born. She is reputedly distantly related to a swag of famous of noted writers, musicians and politicians including playwright Tennessee Williams, Little Women author Louisa May Alcott, Pulitzer Prize winners Archibald MacLeish and Bruce Catton, composer Cole Porter and even inventor Thomas Edison.
Holding an MA in fiction writing from Victoria University's acclaimed International Institute of Modern Letters, Catton's first book, The Rehearsal, won numerous local awards, was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize and longlisted for the Orange Prize.
Following the Man Booker win, Catton found herself swept up in a media storm after she spoke out about the state of intellectual and cultural life in New Zealand. She labelled the John Key-led National Government as "neo-liberal and profit-obsessed", adding that she felt "very angry" about their time in office.
Catton shouldn't have been criticised for those comments; instead, she should have been lauded for speaking out and her comments should have started a much-needed debate about what we truly value in New Zealand.
