1992

1992

Michael Ondaatje
The English Patient
Bloomsbury

Barry Unsworth
Sacred Hunger
Hamish Hamilton

The judges, chaired by Victoria Glendinning, came under fire for splitting the prize between Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient (later an evocative film directed by the late Anthony Minghella) and Barry Unsworth’s Sacred Hunger. As a result the Booker Prize management committee changed the rules so that in future only one book could win. On jointly winning the prize, Ondaatje said, ‘For a short time, I was a legend in my own lunchtime.’