From the Academy

The Academy is a great store of knowledge and opinion about great books. From time to time we ask its members to write a short piece on books they have admired. Here are some of their responses, most recently about the books shortlisted for the 2014 Prize, and further back about the one book they would have liked to win the Prize if it had always existed.

Tessa McWatt on Anne Carson

RED DOC JACKETAnne Carson takes form and doesn’t just hybridise it but explodes it, reminding us that in literature anything is possible. Her characters cut across time so seamlessly that time itself disappears and we are moored in a present where the precision of her observations and her acuminous language make you think it’s all going to hurt, but instead there’s beauty and humour. And the human condition laid bare.