2012 Man Booker Prize bookmakers had Self at slightly better odds than Mantel, with the others somewhat behind. On 16 October, shortly after 21:40, jury chair Peter Stothard announced that the winner of the 2012 Man Booker Prize was Hilary Mantel for her "Bring Up the Bodies". By winning, Mantel became the first woman to win the Booker Prize twice, as well as the first British author to do so (South African J. M. Coetzee and Australian Peter Carey have won the award twice each). Mantel joked that "[y]ou wait 20 years for a Booker Prize; two come along at once". She added: "I
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