In a recent column for The Guardian, Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker has compared his experience serving on the 2026 Booker Prize judging panel to the collaborative and often unpredictable nature of life in a band.
Cocker, who served alongside chair Mary Beard and fellow judges Patricia Lockwood, Raymond Antrobus, and Rebecca Liu, noted that while the group was comprised of very different individuals, they were united by the common goal of selecting a winner. The musician, who was photographed performing with Pulp in Glasgow on June 7, 2025, noted that the panel successfully avoided the tendency of juries to settle on a “bland” or “least offensive option.”
Reflecting on the process of judging the Booker Prize, the musician observed that both bands and literary panels function as democracies, though he noted that in his own band, he tends to “make more noise than everybody else.”
He praised the panel for avoiding the trap of settling on the “least offensive option,” instead engaging in a process that required significant deliberation before reaching a final decision. Although he entered the final meeting with three potential winners in mind, the group underwent a lengthy period of debate before reaching a consensus without any conflict.
Cocker managed the demands of reading 163 eligible novels while touring with his band. He utilized the entries to occupy his time during long, typically tedious flights. To manage the workload, he read the entries on an iPad, a method he noted helped him remain objective by masking the books’ physical covers and the names of the authors.
This digital approach allowed him to avoid conscious or unconscious biases during his evaluation. He noted that he would not generally recommend reading on a tablet, but it proved effective for this specific task.
The schedule proved challenging, with the musician occasionally attending judging sessions while on the road. He recalled one instance in Sydney where the time difference required him to participate in a meeting from 1:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m., noting he was fortunate that the session did not coincide with a performance night.
The panel ultimately selected The End of Everything by M John Harrison as the winner. Cocker, who read the novel three times during the selection process, acknowledged that it is not an easy read. He noted that while some books “shallowed out” upon re-reading, Harrison’s work deepened, revealing new details.
Cocker admitted that he initially feared the intensive reading schedule would sour his relationship with books, as he had previously viewed reading as a solitary pursuit. Despite his initial concerns about being the “odd one out” among professional writers, he concluded that the experience was a “treat” that helped him become a much faster reader.
He now typically finishes a book in three or four days, though he remains uncertain if he will maintain this speed or revert to his “usual tortoiselike pace.”
