Good luck to you, Martin. I hope you pick the winner.

OK - we're off.

I could not resist reading The Testaments by Margaret Atwood.

It is very good indeed. It's actually three intertwining "testaments" of two young women and Aunt Lydia (whom we remember from The Handmaid's Tale), which tells quite an exciting story. We also find out a bit about Aunt Lydia's backstory.

I'm not surprised it was longlisted, but I'm a bit surprised that it was shortlisted. It's very good - but it has two flaws as far as I'm concerned. The first is minor - it seems to me to not have the same impact as The Handmaid's Tale - it's more of a thriller than an exploration via a novel of what happens in a place like Gilead. There is some of the exploration, but in the end, it's feels like it's wriiten as a thriller. (I felt the same about The Wall, by John Lanchester.) The second flaw is far more significant - I don't think it stands up as a single book. I don't think you'd make any sense of the book if you hadn't either read The Handmaid's Tale or seen at least some of the TV dramatization. To me, that is enough to put it out of contention - I don't think a book can be considered as a contender as "best book of the year" if it can't be read as a stand-alone book, without any knowledge of a previous story.

So - good book, but I hope it doesn't win. It's not as if she needs the prize money, anyway!

Next up is Ducks, Newburyport. I like to support the little publishers!

Good luck, Martin. Let us know if it holds up to the end.

And the winner is....

Well, in fact there are two winners. Atwood and Evaristo. The rules say you can't split the prize, but the judges have done it anyway. They were told repeatedly what the rules were, and they ignored the rules.

Personally, I call that a cop-out. It doesn't help, also, that I reckon that The Testaments is a pretty good book, but not in the same class as Girl, Women, Other. It also rankles that Evaristo is the first black woman to win the Booker, and she has to share it with someone who has (a) already won the Booker and (b) hardly needs the money anyway.

Really really disappointed with the judges. I think they should have shown a bit of backbone. If you can't decide, go for the brave choice. Atwood is not a brave choice.

And, of course, if Evaristo had won outright, I'd have picked up £70. As a shared winner, I got £35. That's a bit annoying too.

Martin, I heard Evaristo on the 'Today' radio prog. this morning. She sounded pretty happy and at least her 'name' will be better known and she can go on to a brighter writing future. I suppose the 35 quid covers the cost of a couple of the books!