There are times when the best comes forward, even though it has been kept in the dark, ignored and unnoticed. This is the case of almost-underdog  Anne Enright, that was awarded the Man Booker prize for her novel “The Gathering”.

Enright persuaded the judges - poet Wendy Cope, journalist Giles Foden, critic Ruth Scurr, actor Imogen Stubbs, chaired by Howard Davies with the “powerful, uncomfortable and even at times angry book” that focuses on a “family dysfunction” that is depicted in bleak, sometimes bitter words, herself characterizing it as “the intellectual equivalent of a Hollywood weepie”.

Having to choose from renown names like Ian McEwan (On Chesil Beach) and Lloyd Jones (Mister Pip), the judges used a combined voting method, a weighted system, a simple ranking system and single transferable vote. And the each system cast Enright as the winner of the £50,000 prize, plus the £2,500 that every nominee received, not to mention the worldwide recognition.

The Dubliner, that previously written The Portable Virgin, a collection of stories, three novels and a scientific work, Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood, might have been outstripped in sales figures by McEwan (120,362), Nicola Barker's Darkmans (11,097), Mister Pip (5,170), while The Gathering sold only 3,253 copies, but her talent surely has been recognized eventually.