2012 Man Booker Prize overly populist. Whether or not as a response to this, the 2012 jury strongly emphasised the value of literary quality and linguistic innovation as criteria for inclusion. The winner was Hilary Mantel, an early favourite, for her book "Bring Up the Bodies", the sequel to her novel "Wolf Hall", which won the award in 2009. Mantel became the first woman, and the first Briton, to win the prize twice. A strong challenger to Mantel was established writer Will Self, who was nominated for the first time. Other shortlisters included second-time nominee Tan Twan Eng, Deborah Levy, who returned from a
2012 Man Booker Prize he liked a novel to "zip along". Critics alleged that literary quality was ignored, and Robert McCrum of "The Observer" declared the nominations "one of the worst-ever shortlists". Rimington responded to the criticism by claiming that "[p]eople weirder than me have chaired the Booker." Alex Clark, also of "The Observer", called the controversy a "straw man debate", contending that the shortlisted writers were "no more – and no less — "readable" than many other writers." Even McCrum had to admit that the winner, Julian Barnes for his "The Sense of an Ending", was worthy of the prize. The 2012 jury