But on Sunday evening Ondaatje edged ahead, with his bestselling novel The English Patient being named the best winner of the Booker prize of the last 50 years, in a public vote.
But she said that The English Patient stood out, due to the Sri Lankan-born Canadian author’s treatment of his female characters.
Shamsie described The English Patient as the sort of book that “gets under your skin and insists you return to it time and again, always yielding a new surprise or delight”.
And The English Patient film, she said, focuses on Almasy’s affair, while for her, the central love story is between Hana and Kip, an Indian Sikh bomb disposal expert.