The Help wins Boeke

Cape Town - The Help has won the prestigious Boeke prize from a field of six contenders.

The annual Exclusive books Boeke prize recognised a range of different tales for the lavish event held at Pomodoro Ristorante, Morningside Shopping Centre, in Johannesburg.

After a long and rigorous process, The Help stood out as the favourite with readers, buyers and journalists.

Other finalists included Testimony, People of the Book, The Angel's Game, The Children's Book, and The Selected Works of TS Spivet.

Host of the event, critic Barry Ronge said that his involvement was a natural fit.

"I've always loved books and these are real books for real people," he told News24.

"There are serious books written by academics and read by academics and, with respect, they very rarely reach real people. These books aren't the great blockbuster popular books, but they are read by real people," he added.

Complex process

The process of choosing a winner was quite complex and involved buyers from Exclusive Books, and people who buy books. Journalists' input in the critique of the finalists is also taken into account.

"It's a truly democratic process - readers paid money and they chose. It's a popular prize as opposed to an academic one where it's decided by high brow individuals," added Ronge.

He conceded though, that the Boeke Prize doesn't choose books based solely on popularity.

"Look, if we were doing the truly popular, Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol - I like to call it Chasin' the Masons - would win hands down. What we're looking for is a book that's an entertaining page turner, but also raises issues - the sort of middle ground between entertainment and academic," said Ronge.

Ronge has been involved with the prize for over 10 years and said that he's happy with the wider media exposure the Boeke is receiving.

"They used to have this in a shop, but look at how they've glammed it," he added.

Ronge said that he's started writing his own book.

"Well the first three chapters are sitting on the desk at Penguin, and I'm waiting to hear whether it's any good," he said.