Get to know the Booker Prize 2025 judges
Roddy Doyle, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Sarah Jessica Parker, Chris Power and Kiley Reid reveal how they’ve made more time for reading and why talking about books is always illuminating
We’re less than two weeks away from finding out the Booker Prize 2025 longlist. Ahead of the big reveal on Tuesday 29 July, we caught up with the judges before they decide which books will be on the list. Over the last seven months, they’ve read well over 100 novels – just 13 will make it through.
This year’s panel is chaired by 1993’s Booker winner Roddy Doyle and includes Booker-longlisted novelist Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, writer, broadcaster and literary critic Chris Power, award-winning actor, producer and publisher Sarah Jessica Parker, and New York Times bestselling and Booker-longlisted author Kiley Reid.
In a series of candid Q&As, the judges discuss how they’ve tackled their immense TBR piles, and share their expert tips for fitting more reading into your life. They also tell us who’d be in their dream book clubs, the books that first sparked their love of reading and their all-time favourite Booker-nominated books.
And if you’re wondering what makes a Booker Prize winner, we have an animated explainer that charts one book’s progress through the process – from initial submission, through longlisting and shortlisting, to being crowned the winner./the booker prizes
