Oak Tree Fine Press

The Booker Prize First Chapter Series

2012 sees the launch of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, the Booker of Bookers, which is the final book in the current Booker Prize First Chapter Series©.

First Chapter Series >

View more images of all ten volumes of the First Chapter Series©

The Booker Prize First Chapter Series is a contribution by authors of the first chapter of their prize winning novels in support of children living with HIV/AIDS. Each book is published in a limited signed edition and features donated and specially commissioned artwork.

The History of the Booker Prize First Chapter Series

The series was launched in 2006, with the publication of Oak Tree Fine Press’s first ever book, The Life and Times of Michael K, illustrated in black and white by South African artist Colbert Mashile. The support of Nobel Prize winner J. M. Coetzee has been vital to the success of the series, and its second volume featured his Booker Prize winning novel of 1999, Disgrace.

Since then, a wide range of authors have collaborated on the series, linked by their shared status as Booker Prize winners, and their mutual interest in contributing to a worthwhile cause through the creation of beautiful and thought provoking books.

Artwork and the Booker Prize First Chapter Series

Originally featuring designs by up and coming authors, the series has expanded to include signed works by some of our greatest living artists. In each volume, the images offer an acutely relevant and valuable perspective on the themes and styles of these inspiring literary works.

Fundraising and the Booker Prize First Chapter Series

Over the past six years, the series has gone from strength to strength, with an impressive £50,000 raised as of May 2012. This money has gone to support a range of African charities, which are either selected by the Press or in some cases specified by our contributors. Some examples of how our profits have been used can be found in the who benefits section.

What is the Booker Prize?

The Man Booker Prize represents the very best in contemporary fiction and is awarded each year for the best original full-length novel written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland in the English language. From 1969 until the present day the prize continues to be the pinnacle of ambition for every English writer and remains the world's most important award for literary fiction. In 2010, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children was voted the “Booker of Bookers” and it is this book, published in 2012, which features as the final volume in the Booker Prize First Chapter Series.

Winners of the Booker Prize since 1969.

• 1969: P H Newby, Something to Answer For
• 1970: Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member
• 1971: V S Naipaul, In a Free State
• 1972: John Berger, G.
• 1973: J G Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur
• 1974: Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist
• 1974: Stanley Middleton, Holiday
• 1975: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust
• 1976: David Storey, Saville
• 1977: Paul Scott, Staying On
• 1978: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea
• 1979: Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore
• 1980: William Golding, Rites of Passage
• 1981: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children
• 1982: Thomas Keneally, Schindler's Ark
• 1983: J. M. Coetzee, Life and Times of Michael K
• 1984: Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac
• 1985: Keri Hulme, The Bone People
• 1986: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils
• 1987: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger
• 1988: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda
• 1989: Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
• 1990: A.S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance
• 1991: Ben Okri, The Famished Road
• 1992: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient, and Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger
• 1993: Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
• 1994: James Kelman, How late it was, how late
• 1995: Pat Barker, The Ghost Road
• 1996: Graham Swift, Last Orders
• 1997: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
• 1998: Ian McEwan, Amsterdam
• 1999: J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace
• 2000: Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
• 2001: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang
• 2002: Yann Martel, Life of Pi
• 2003: DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little
• 2004: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty
• 2005: John Banville, The Sea
• 2006: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of loss
• 2007: Anne Enright, The Gathering
• 2008: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
• 2009: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
• 2010: Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question
• 2011: Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending