books

Hollinghurst, who won in 2004 for The Line of Beauty, was longlisted for its follow-up and was second favourite to win - then failed to make the shortlist in the year the judges famously prized readability. A century-spanning novel about a minor war poet and the unreliable machinery of literary memory, it is slower than its predecessor and richer for it. The 2011 panel chose zip. Posterity is choosing this.