Booker judge criticises 'highbrow' male panels

ONE of this year's Man Booker Prize judges has criticised male academics who sit on literary panels, claiming they pick "highbrow" novels over readable ones.

Louise Doughty, author of five novels, launched her scathing attack ahead of the awards ceremony tonight. She said male academics should not be invited to judge the selection because they tried to pick titles to impress their colleagues.

"Academics always have their eye on their reputations and always have a vested interest to pick someone as literary and obscure as possible," she said. "I think academics are always looking over their shoulder."

She added that the men in particular tended to make judgments based on "how well the winning book reflected on them", rather than considering the best entry.

"I think women academics are a hell of a lot less poncey than male ones," she added.

Despite their popularity, many writers such as Sebastian Faulks, Mark Haddon and Robert Harris have never won the Booker.

Doughty said it was purely those authors' accessibility which counted against them.

But John Sutherland, Emeritus professor of English literature at University College London, who was chairman of the prize in 2005, said her comments were sexist.

"To say male academics is as offensive as it would be to say too many female novelists are chosen as panellists," he said. "I don't, of course, believe that they are, or that female novelists can be lumped together any more than male academics can."

He added that Doughty's allegations "sound bonkers (sorry to use academic terminology) to me".

Professor Sutherland cast the winning vote for the Booker to be awarded to John Banville for The Sea. He had been seen as the most non-commercial of the contenders.

Doughty is joined on this year's panel by former MP Michael Portillo, editor of Granta Alex Clark, James Heneage, the founder of Ottaker's bookshop, and Hardeep Singh Kohli, the TV and radio broadcaster.

They will pick from a shortlist of six novelists The Independent columnist Philip Hensher, for The Northern Clemency; Sebastian Barry, for The Secret Scripture; Aravind Adiga, for The White Tiger; Amitav Ghosh, for Sea Of Poppies; Linda Grant, for The Clothes On Their Backs, and Steve Toltz, for A Fraction Of The Whole.

The winner will be announced at the Southbank Centre tonight and broadcast on Radio 4.

Amitav Ghosh's Sea Of Poppies, an epic saga about the Opium Wars, is the new 7/4 favourite with bookmakers, replacing previous favourite The Secret Scripture.