Briton Howard Jacobson wins 2010 Booker Prize

British author Howard Jacobsen won the 2010 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for his book The Finkler Question.

Jacobson had been longlisted twice for the prize, in 2006 for Kalooki Nights and in 2002 for Who's Sorry Now, but has never before been shortlisted for the prize before.

'The Finkler Question is a novel about love, loss and male friendship, and explores what it means to be Jewish today' , said a report on the Booker Prize website.

The judging panel for the 2010 Booker prize consisted of Andrew Motion (chair), former Poet Laureate, Rosie Blau, Literary Editor of the Financial Times; Deborah Bull, Creative Director of the Royal Opera House, Tom Sutcliffe, journalist, broadcaster and author and Frances Wilson, biographer and critic.

An award-winning novelist and critic, Jacobson was born in Manchester on 25 August, 1942 and read English at Cambridge. 

Jacobson has taught at the University of Sydney, Selwyn College, Cambridge and Wolverhampton Polytechnic - the inspiration for his first novel, Coming From Behind.  His other works include The Mighty Walzer and The Act of Love.

Jacobson currently writes a weekly column for the Independent and has written and presented several documentaries for television, the Booker Prize committe said in a statement.

Image: Howard Jacobson, winner of the 2010 Man Booker Prize, poses with his book The Finkler Question.

Photograph: Paul Hackett/Reuters