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Winner of the 2013 Man Booker Prize Eleanor Catton talks to former stand-up comic, writer and 2013 Booker judge Natalie Haynes about her award-winning novel, The Luminaries. Catton is the youngest winner of the Man Booker at 28 and her novel was chosen ahead of works by the likes of Jim Crace and Colm Toibin. It is also the longest novel at 832 pages to win the prize. The Luminaries is set in the goldfields of Catton’s native New Zealand in the second half of the 19th century and follows Walter Moody as he comes across a series of unsolved crimes. The novel is a rich evocation of the period, a gripping mystery and a ghost story. Chair of the Booker judges Robert Macfarlane said: ‘Maturity is evident in every sentence, in the rhythms and balances. It is a novel of astonishing control.’

Catton was born in Canada and raised in New Zealand. Her debut novel, The Rehearsal, won the Adam Prize in Creative Writing and the Betty Trask Award. Haynes is a writer, broadcaster, reviewer and classicist and former stand-up comic. She appears at another festival event to talk about her first novel, The Amber Fury.

Sponsored by Blackwell’s.

In association with The Man Booker prizes