I was at a celebration yesterday afternoon to welcome Graham Swift back to Picador. His last book was published by Penguin. He told a nice story of how he was in a very swanky Madrid hotel recently. Apparently this was the hotel where bullfighting stars stayed when preparing for an event. So perhaps unsurprising but uncomfortable to share the lift with two fully-uniformed picadors. As he pointed out, this is still more likely than sharing a lift with two penguins.

There was a certain tension in the air because we (and Graham's agent) were awaiting the announcement of the Man Booker prize long list. We were delighted that books by two authors published by Picador, Claire Messud and Edward St Aubyn were selected. The trouble with the longlist is that it must really hurt not to be on it if you think you have a chance but that being on it is still a huge distance from winning the prize itself. Fingers crossed that these two make it to the next round to be announced on 14 September and then they can both suffer the agony of awaiting the final announcement on 10 October. Authors published by Picador have won the prize the last two years (Alan Hollinghurst and John Banville). I'm not sure any publisher has ever achieved a hat-trick but records are there to be set.