Novelist Keri Hulme, with book, with Spiral Publishing collective members in Wellington, New Zealand, 1984.
Further novels were conspicuous by their absence, however. Hulme went on to publish collections of short stories and poetry and wrote the libretto for a choral work about one of her Maori ancestors, which was performed by the Christchurch City Choir. Graham Lord, literary editor of the Sunday Express, was moved by Hulme’s victory to found the £20,000 Sunday Express Book of the Year Award for distinguished but unpretentious novels.ĭespite the controversies, readers lapped up the book, which sold more than a million copies. The novel attracted vehement criticism after the Booker win, with Jeffrey Bernard claiming that “the gift of a typewriter to the young Keri by her parents was the greatest case of child abuse” he had heard of. Having bet her mother half the £15,000 prize money that she would not win, Keri Hulme duly honoured the wager. Unable to attend the Booker dinner in October 1985 as she was on a promotional tour of the US, Hulme was informed of her victory by telephone during the televised ceremony, endearingly responding “you are pulling my leg, aren’t you? Bloody hell - it’s totally unbelievable.”Īlthough she was in Utah, a dry state, her mother, who was travelling with her, managed to secure a celebratory half-bottle of champagne.
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