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The odds on New Zealand writer Lloyd Jones winning the Man Booker Prize for his Bouganville-set novel Mister Pip have shortened from 20/1 to 2/1, the best on the shortlist of six, according to William Hill Betting Operations in London. The shortlist was announced yesterday.
William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe said, "I have been doing the prizes for the Man Booker Prize for 25 years now and this is the first time I can remember a book going from the total outsider of the field to become the clear favourite. It is just unprecedented.
"We could be looking at our first six-figure payout in Booker history. We are even seeing people betting on a double of New Zealander Jones winning the Booker and hot favourites NZ winning the rugby World Cup, which currently pays odds of 7/2."
However, another prominent British bookmaker, Ladbrokes, has Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach at 6/4 favourite, with Nicola Barker's Darkmans in second place at 3/1 and Mister Pip third at 4/1.
Jones said he was thrilled - and also dismissed speculation that his property-magnate brother Sir Bob Jones may have had a hand in placing some large bets. "He is not a punter," Jones told One News. "He is very conservative so, no, he would not be putting money on me."
Online retailer Amazon.co.uk reports that sales of Mister Pip have surged week-on-week since the Booker longlist was announced in August.
Amazon.co.uk head of books buying Kes Nielsen told the Times newspaper in London, "Mister Pip could well be a dark horse for the prize.
"With the Booker, or any other award, sales go through the roof once the [longlist] announcement is made but it is a real achievement to not only maintain those sales over the following weeks but further grow them in the manner that a book like Mister Pip has."
The William Hill odds for McEwan's On Chesil Beach are 5/2.
McEwan's novel Amsterdam won the Booker in 1998, and only J.M. Coetzee and Peter Carey have won the title twice.
Mister Pip has already won the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Prize for best fiction this year.
It took Jones three years and 10 drafts to pen the story, which is narrated by 13-year-old Matilda, who becomes transfixed by Pip, the character in Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations after it is read to her class by an eccentric teacher.
The Man Booker winner will be announced at a ceremony at the Guildhall in London on October 16.
The other books on the shortlist are The Reluctant Fundamendalist, by Mohsin Hamid, Animal's People, by Indra Sinha, and The Gathering, by Anne Enwright.
If Jones wins, he will be just the second New Zealander to do so. Keri Hulme won with bone people in 1985.
Place your bets
William Hill's latest Man Booker odds:
2/1 Lloyd Jones - Mr Pip.
5/2 Ian McEwan - On Chesil Beach.
4/1 Nicola Barker - Darkmans.
5/1 Mohsin Hamid - The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
8/1 Anne Enwright - The Gathering.
8/1 Indra Sinha - Animal's People.
- additional reporting: Stuart Dye
