Eleanor Catton Author 1985
Youngest winner of the Man Booker Prize
At 28, Canadian-born New Zealander Eleanor Catton became the youngest winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for her second novel, The Luminaries. The 832-page book, a Victorian mystery tale set during the NZ gold rush, was also the longest work to win one of literature's most prestigious prizes.
Catton wasn't the first New Zealander to win the Man Booker; that was Keri Hulme whose novel The Bone People won in 1985 — the year Catton was born. She is reputedly distantly related to a swag of famous of noted writers, musicians and politicians including playwright Tennessee Williams, Little Women author Louisa May Alcott, Pulitzer Prize winners Archibald MacLeish and Bruce Catton, composer Cole Porter and even inventor Thomas Edison.
Holding an MA in fiction writing from Victoria University's acclaimed International Institute of Modern Letters, Catton's first book, The Rehearsal, won numerous local awards, was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize and longlisted for the Orange Prize.
