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 2012 Man Booker Prize The 2012 Booker Prize for Fiction was awarded on 16 October 2012. A longlist of twelve titles was announced on 25 July, and these were narrowed down to a shortlist of six titles, announced on 11 September. The jury was chaired by Sir Peter Stothard, editor of the "Times Literary Supplement", accompanied by literary critics Dinah Birch and Bharat Tandon, historian and biographer Amanda Foreman, and Dan Stevens, actor of "Downton Abbey" fame with a background English Literature studies. The jury was faced with the controversy of the 2011 jury, whose approach had been seen as