Many countries have a major recognition accolade for literature and in the UK it is the Booker Prize. Established in 1969, the Booker Prize is awarded each year for the best original novel written in the English language and published in the UK. As you might imagine, there have been some incredible nominations and winners, some of which have been turned into equally fabulous movies. Like these:
Based on the prize winning 1982 novel by Thomas Keneally called Schindler’s Ark, this is a harrowing and emotional story of a repentant man who tries to save a number of Jews from certain death in a WWII concentration camp.
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Adapted from the 1989 Booker Prize winning novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro, this 1993 film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson captures all of the drama and romance that made the book so brilliant in the first place.
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Written by Yann Martel, many believed that it was a novel that could never be transferred to the big screen, but Life of Pi was brought to vivid life thanks to the amazing talent and creativity of filmmaker Ang Lee.
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This 1982 Merchant Ivory production is a lush, atmospheric period piece based on book by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who also wrote the screenplay. Set in two distinct eras, colonial India of the 1920s and the independent, freewheeling India of the early 1980s it explores Anglo-Indian relations through the power of romance as told by the story of two women.
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A novel by J.M. Coetzee from 1999, this big screen adaptation of the gripping drama Disgrace stars John Malkovich as a South African professor who seduces a student and is fired.
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In my opinion, The English Patient is one of those rare cases when the film adaptation is even better than the already amazing novel. The book was written in 1992 by Michael Ondaatje, and they could only wait until 1996 to bring it to the big screen. It really is an amazing movie.
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The book was written by Salman Rushdie. Two children, born within moments of India gaining independence from Britain, grow up in the country that is nothing like their parent's generation.
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Based on a 1988 novel by Australian writer Peter Carey, the film tells a sweeping story about a couple who love each other as much as they love gambling!
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Not a movie, but definitely worth a mention is the TV series of Wolf Hall, based on the amazing novel by author Hilary Mantel that details the drama of the Tudor reign in England. (Mantel’s sequel to Wolf Hall – bringing up the bodies - also won the Booker Prize.) If you loved The Tudors, you must watch this.
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Which of these have you seen? Midnight’s Children is the only one I haven’t watched yet but will set that right this year.