Gay writer Marlon James wins Man Booker Prize

Gay author Marlon James has taken out the Man Booker Prize 2015 for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings. The prize was awarded at a glitzy event last night at London’s Guildhall, where James received his £50,000 prize from the Duchess of Cornwall.

James is the first Jamaican author to win the prestigious literary prize in its 46-year history, and the first out gay author since Alan Hollinghurst, who won for The Line of Beauty in 2004.

A Brief History of Seven Killings takes its starting point from the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in Jamaica in the late 1970s and goes on to span several decades, covering something of a social history of the country. HBO has already bought the rights to the book, with a view to producing a miniseries. It is James’ third novel, following the slavery-themed The Book of Night Women (2009) and John Crow’s Devil (2010), both of which are also set in Jamaica. In an interview with the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning, the author revealed he almost gave up writing after his first novel was rejected 78 times by publishers.

Earlier this year James wrote a candid essay for the New York Times Magazine, in which he discussed growing up gay in his home country; how he asked doctors for help, and considered suicide. He wrote, “At 28 years old, seven years out of college, I was so convinced that my voice outed me as a fag that I had stopped speaking to people I didn’t know.” He describes how, after moving to Minnesota USA, he finally came to accept himself, and began writing the works for which he was celebrated last night.

In an interview with the Telegraph, he also discussed the “simple things” he was unable to do in Jamaica. “You might want to walk down the street and hold somebody’s hand one day. When you grow up in a homophobic country, you’re sitting on a timebomb.”

James beat five other nominees on the shortlist, including bookies’ favourite Hanya Yanagihara, an American author whose epic book A Little Life traversed the life story of four male friends dealing with the legacy of abuse, with a unique same-sex relationship at its heart.