Writers still form identifiable generations. For all their curmudgeonly individualism, the "angry young men" of the 1950s stood for something. By contrast, argues Allan Massie, the 1980s generation are disconnected and indifferent to life in Britain
With the collapse of price-fixing for books, British publishers need the Booker Prize more than ever. Paul Bilic and Robert Winder compare it to France's loftier Prix Goncourt