Haunting journeys
It was Ferdinand Mount, then editor of The Times Literary Supplement, who came up with the idea. No literary prize had yet found a valid way of bringing together and judging fiction, poetry and works of history, memoir and biography. When, in 2002, he joined the Council of the Royal Society of Literature, Mount suggested that a profound sense of place is not confined to any single genre of writing. It permeates all branches of imaginative literature, he argued, whether set at home or abroad, in a city or the countryside, as part of fantasy or of fact – in the present and the past.
I had recently been appointed president of the Royal Society of Literature and almost my first task was to find a generous and appropriate sponsor for this original new prize. The best morning’s work I did as president was to write to Christopher Ondaatje describing the nature of this prize and inviting him to help us create it in his name. What we were seeking was much more than local colour or a physical description of some exotic landscape. It was a particular kind of rootedness that is difficult to define – ‘an accumulated atmosphere’, the biographer Richard Holmes was to call it, ‘which takes readers on a journey and has the power to haunt them long after the last page is turned’. Christopher Ondaatje saw at once how the concept of ‘place’ stretched from lyric poetry to social history. A few days later we discussed the idea over lunch and brought it to life.
I had met Christopher before at his home on the border of Devon and Somerset where he was to establish an extraordinary gallery of literature and painting. At our lunch at Somerset House I got to know him better. He is a remarkable man of many talents and many lives. He has been a formidable athlete, an intrepid explorer, an adventurer, a successful publisher, a generous patron of the arts and an author who has written about animals and men – including the lives of Hemingway, Richard Burton and Leonard Woolf. He is also a regular contributor to The Lady.
But most remarkable has been his own life: from happy and prosperous beginnings in Ceylon, through a difficult period in this country, followed by a career in Canada where, with great courage and tenacity, he recreated himself. His is a roller-coaster story of riches to rags to riches. He is most celebrated in Britain as a patron of the arts – in particular for the Ondaatje Wing at the National Portrait Gallery and as a benefactor of the Royal Geographical Society. But his attraction to literature has been pre-eminent.
‘Literature has been my life and love since I was a small boy,’ I remember him saying. ‘As both a traveller and a writer, the spirit of a place is something that is particularly close to my own heart.’
‘What exactly is the spirit of a place? What kind of prose can truly capture it? Is it something exotically strange, or something deeply familiar? Our discussions became passionate, moving from geography to anthropology to philosophy (with a bit of cookery and meteorology thrown in). But when I saw my fellow judges getting that far-away look in their eyes I knew that we were going to finish up in Outer Mongolia.’
Announcing the winner of that first prize, Christopher Ondaatje said: ‘I have been battling all my life to evoke a sense of place in my writing – it is one of the hardest things imaginable to convey. So I have the utmost admiration for the achievements of these six shortlisted authors and it is a great pleasure to tell you that the winner is Louisa Waugh’. Her book, Hearing Birds Fly, was remarkable for the beautiful authenticity with which she described a year of living and teaching in a Mongolian village. As her name was announced, the sky around us suddenly lit up with fi reworks. It was impossible not to believe that London was congratulating her – and the inauguration of this new prize.
1. Christopher Ondaatje congratulates the 2011 winner Edmund de Waal 2. Philip Hensher in 2013 3. With Zadie Smith
I cannot think of a happier coming together than Christopher Ondaatje and the Royal Society of Literature. Over a decade the prize has gained a special place in the literary calendar and is becoming better known each year. Yet it does not have the fame of, for example, the Man Booker Prize. Why is that? Having spent several years on the advisory committee of the Booker, I believe I know the answer. I remember its creator, Sir Michael Caine (not the actor but director of cash-and-carry company Booker McConnell), asking me why I thought his prize was so popular in Britain. I muttered something about it being the equivalent of the Goncourt Prize in France.
‘Not at all,’ he replied with relish. ‘It’s because it’s so unfair!’
It’s true that the Booker had some very odd judges, including the prime minister’s wife, Mary Wilson. But what had made it so inviting for the media were the many controversies it attracted, ranging from diatribes made by winners of the prize on Booker McConnell itself and the handing over of their money to controversial organisations such as the Black Panthers. The Ondaatje Prize is fair in the sense that it is judged by distinguished poets, novelists and nonfi ction writers – and the money has been welcomed by winners who can use it to write new books.
Ondaatje has now replenished his original investment in the prize and has committed his future to it. That it is highly regarded in the world of writers and publishers is evident. But how can we widen its fame?
‘Let’s do something fantastic!’ Christopher urged us. In this spirit I explained to the guests at a recent prize dinner at the Travellers Club that if we were suddenly to become violent, turn over the tables and throw the plates and glasses at one another, we might well get some Booker-style attention from the media. But we have decided instead to use other methods – of which this article is one.
The next Ondaatje Prize will be announced on Monday 19 May.
EXCLUSIVE: THE LADY REVEALS THIS YEAR'S SHORTLIST
1. THE BLIND MAN'S GARDEN by Nadeem Aslam (Faber)
2. BADGERLANDS by Patrick Barkham (Granta)
3. SPIRIT HOUSE by Mark Dapin (Altantic)
4. FOUR FIELDS by Tim Dee (Cape)
5. THIS BOY by Alan Johnson (Bantam Press)
6. FIELD NOTES FROM A HIDDEN CITY by Esther Woolfson (Granta)
I had recently been appointed president of the Royal Society of Literature and almost my first task was to find a generous and appropriate sponsor for this original new prize. The best morning’s work I did as president was to write to Christopher Ondaatje describing the nature of this prize and inviting him to help us create it in his name. What we were seeking was much more than local colour or a physical description of some exotic landscape. It was a particular kind of rootedness that is difficult to define – ‘an accumulated atmosphere’, the biographer Richard Holmes was to call it, ‘which takes readers on a journey and has the power to haunt them long after the last page is turned’. Christopher Ondaatje saw at once how the concept of ‘place’ stretched from lyric poetry to social history. A few days later we discussed the idea over lunch and brought it to life.
I had met Christopher before at his home on the border of Devon and Somerset where he was to establish an extraordinary gallery of literature and painting. At our lunch at Somerset House I got to know him better. He is a remarkable man of many talents and many lives. He has been a formidable athlete, an intrepid explorer, an adventurer, a successful publisher, a generous patron of the arts and an author who has written about animals and men – including the lives of Hemingway, Richard Burton and Leonard Woolf. He is also a regular contributor to The Lady.
But most remarkable has been his own life: from happy and prosperous beginnings in Ceylon, through a difficult period in this country, followed by a career in Canada where, with great courage and tenacity, he recreated himself. His is a roller-coaster story of riches to rags to riches. He is most celebrated in Britain as a patron of the arts – in particular for the Ondaatje Wing at the National Portrait Gallery and as a benefactor of the Royal Geographical Society. But his attraction to literature has been pre-eminent.
‘Literature has been my life and love since I was a small boy,’ I remember him saying. ‘As both a traveller and a writer, the spirit of a place is something that is particularly close to my own heart.’
SPIRITED PROSE
The first Ondaatje prize for £10,000 was given at a spectacular dinner party held on the evening of 18 May 2004 in the restaurant at the top of the National Portrait Gallery. There was a shortlist of six books that carried readers over many varied experiences by way of ‘mountains, prisons, street markets, lunatic asylums and the acute discomfort of a Mongol tent’, as Beryl Bainbridge, one of the judges, remarked with a note of triumph. The chairman of the judges was Richard Holmes. ‘It was a genuinely thrilling prize to judge,’ he said.‘What exactly is the spirit of a place? What kind of prose can truly capture it? Is it something exotically strange, or something deeply familiar? Our discussions became passionate, moving from geography to anthropology to philosophy (with a bit of cookery and meteorology thrown in). But when I saw my fellow judges getting that far-away look in their eyes I knew that we were going to finish up in Outer Mongolia.’
Announcing the winner of that first prize, Christopher Ondaatje said: ‘I have been battling all my life to evoke a sense of place in my writing – it is one of the hardest things imaginable to convey. So I have the utmost admiration for the achievements of these six shortlisted authors and it is a great pleasure to tell you that the winner is Louisa Waugh’. Her book, Hearing Birds Fly, was remarkable for the beautiful authenticity with which she described a year of living and teaching in a Mongolian village. As her name was announced, the sky around us suddenly lit up with fi reworks. It was impossible not to believe that London was congratulating her – and the inauguration of this new prize.
1. Christopher Ondaatje congratulates the 2011 winner Edmund de Waal 2. Philip Hensher in 2013 3. With Zadie SmithI cannot think of a happier coming together than Christopher Ondaatje and the Royal Society of Literature. Over a decade the prize has gained a special place in the literary calendar and is becoming better known each year. Yet it does not have the fame of, for example, the Man Booker Prize. Why is that? Having spent several years on the advisory committee of the Booker, I believe I know the answer. I remember its creator, Sir Michael Caine (not the actor but director of cash-and-carry company Booker McConnell), asking me why I thought his prize was so popular in Britain. I muttered something about it being the equivalent of the Goncourt Prize in France.
‘Not at all,’ he replied with relish. ‘It’s because it’s so unfair!’
It’s true that the Booker had some very odd judges, including the prime minister’s wife, Mary Wilson. But what had made it so inviting for the media were the many controversies it attracted, ranging from diatribes made by winners of the prize on Booker McConnell itself and the handing over of their money to controversial organisations such as the Black Panthers. The Ondaatje Prize is fair in the sense that it is judged by distinguished poets, novelists and nonfi ction writers – and the money has been welcomed by winners who can use it to write new books.
Ondaatje has now replenished his original investment in the prize and has committed his future to it. That it is highly regarded in the world of writers and publishers is evident. But how can we widen its fame?
‘Let’s do something fantastic!’ Christopher urged us. In this spirit I explained to the guests at a recent prize dinner at the Travellers Club that if we were suddenly to become violent, turn over the tables and throw the plates and glasses at one another, we might well get some Booker-style attention from the media. But we have decided instead to use other methods – of which this article is one.
The next Ondaatje Prize will be announced on Monday 19 May.
EXCLUSIVE: THE LADY REVEALS THIS YEAR'S SHORTLIST
1. THE BLIND MAN'S GARDEN by Nadeem Aslam (Faber)2. BADGERLANDS by Patrick Barkham (Granta)
3. SPIRIT HOUSE by Mark Dapin (Altantic)
4. FOUR FIELDS by Tim Dee (Cape)
5. THIS BOY by Alan Johnson (Bantam Press)
6. FIELD NOTES FROM A HIDDEN CITY by Esther Woolfson (Granta)