When the Booker Prize was set up 40 years ago to reward fine literary fiction, historical novels — like crime stories, thrillers and romances — were somehow considered unworthy of consideration.

Today the judges for this year’s prize announced a shortlist anchored more firmly in the past than any before it, final proof that the snobbery that used to confront writers of historical fiction is now dead.

Some of the most enduring Booker contenders, such as Atonement, The Remains of the Day and Schindler’s Ark, have been historical novels but usually they were joined on their shortlists by something more contemporary or futuristic. This year all six of the contending novels for the 2009 Man Booker Prize play out largely against historical backdrops ranging from Tudor London to South Africa in the 1970s.

Only twice before has there been a comparable emphasis on the past: in 1975 when only two novels were shortlisted, of which one, Heat and Dust, was set partly in the present and partly in colonial India and the other was a First World War novel; and again in 2000 when five books set in the mid to late 20th century jostled with one set in the 19th.

Today Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel’s novel about the machinations of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII was immediately installed as the hottest favourite in the history of the prize. Mantel, 57, has never been a serious contender for the Booker before (she has been longlisted previously) but within 48 hours of this year’s longlist being announced, five weeks ago, she jumped from being an outsider to the 2-1 favourite.

The other five novels in contention are The Children’s Book by A. S. Byatt, Summertime by J. M. Coetzee, The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds, The Glass Room by Simon Mawer and The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. James Naughtie, the chairman of the judges, described the shortlist as “one of the best in the last couple of decades”.

All bar Coetzee, who is South African, are British writers vying for a prize that has been dominated by overseas authors in the past decade. Coetzee is chasing the first hat-trick after wins for Disgrace (1999) and Life & Times of Michael K (1983).

According to Ion Trewin, the literary director of the prize: “The original judges did not include historical fiction because they thought it was genre fiction and genres were considered rather beyond the pale. Gradually though the prize has begun to assimilate the fact that good writing can come from anywhere.”

He picked out J. G. Farrell, the British novelist, who wrote The Siege of Krishnapur, set during the Indian Revolt of 1857, and who won the Booker in 1973, as one of the authors who made a decisive contribution to dismantling prejudices about historical fiction.

The winner will be announced on October 6, will receive £50,000 and in most cases a vastly improved profile. Last year’s winner, The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, has gone on to sell more than half a million copies and has been translated into 30 languages.

Man Booker Prize 2009

10/11 Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall

5/1 Sarah Waters -The Little Stranger

5/1 JM Coetzee - Summertime

6/1 AS Byatt - The Children's Book

10/1 Adam Foulds - The Quickening Maze

10/1 Simon Mawer - The Glass Room

Source: Ladbrokes

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