Booker Prize archives reveals award was once decided by a coin flip

The Prize Foundation released a series of archival interviews with key figures from the award's 49-year history

(Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images)

The Booker prize may be regarded as the primary English-language literary fiction award, but never-before-seen letters have revealed that the award was once decided by a coin toss.

The revelation, made by the prize's former administrator Martyn Goff, was discovered after the Booker Prize Foundation released a series of archival interviews with key figures from the award's 49-year history.

The Times reports that the lucky winner was David Storey novel Saville which won the prize in 1986. It went to a coin toss after two of the three judges, Walter Allen and Francis King, went for different novels.

A letter written by Rebecca West - a judge on the prize's first awards in 1969 - was also released. In it, she shares her candid views on works from the day's leading authors including Melvyn Bragg, John le Carré and Wendy Owen whom she described as a “halfwit.”

West disregarded nominated works, including Bragg's Without a City Wall, as “grossly overwritten” and “curiously disappointing”. The eventual winner, PH Newby's Something to Answer For also failed to avoid her critique with West stating she “could not make out what it is about.”

This year's Man Booker prize winner will be announced on 16 October.