Sam Jordison: Michael Ondaatje's novel was a joint winner of the 1992 prize, but its brilliance is such you can understand why Barry Unsworth's has been rather eclipsed

The judges of the Booker Prize last month couldn't, in the end, choose between Michael Ondaatje and Barry Unsworth. Compared to the judging of this year's Turner Prize for British art, you can't help thinking that they had a relatively easy task. Anyone who has ever had to judge any artistic or literary competition instantly realises that, sooner or later, hawks have to be compared to handsaws. But Ondaatje and Unsworth were both being judged on something which even the Daily Express would recognise as a novel.