Finalists announced for Lost Booker Prize

The Booker prize has announced the " Lost Booker Prize" shortlist on Thursday in London. Six authors will have another shot at Booker glory, as the prize will cover those who missed out on the prize forty years ago.

The six candidates shortlisted are Patrick White's  for The Vivisector, JG Farrell for Troubles,  Mary Renault for Fire From Heaven,  Nina Bawden for The Birds on the Trees,  Shirley Hazzard for The Bay of Noon and Muriel Spark for The Driver's Seat.

The Booker Prize was originally awarded for works published the previous year but in 1971, it became a prize for the best novel published in the current year, thereby bypassing the novels published in 1970.

The Lost Man Booker Prize is an attempt to correct this oversight. Hazzard and Bawden are the only finalists who are still alive. Voting on the Booker website will decide the winner, who will be crowned on May 19.