The Booker Prize 2020

Novelist and activist Kit de Waal follows the most prestigious literary award in the English speaking world - the Booker Prize. We meet the six authors creating some of the most exciting fiction from across the world and reveal the result of this year's Booker prize. The 2020 shortlist offers an inspiring variety of global stories, featuring the most diverse mix of authors the Booker has ever seen, as well as an unusual number of debuts. Kit, a vocal campaigner for inclusivity in publishing, examines the wider landscape of the publishing industry in the wake of the unprecedented global events of 2020. She meets Bernardine Evaristo, joint-winner of last year's award and the first black woman to win the prize since its inception in 1969, to explore not only the life-changing effect of winning the Booker, but also the issue of diversity in publishing highlighted by this year's Black Lives Matter movement. We hear from members of this year's judging panel about how the pandemic has affected not only this year's judging process, but the industry as a whole and the way that we all read. And we share the moment that the winner or winners of the prize find out they have won the title of The Booker Prize 2020.