In comparison with the suddenly-embattled National Book Awards in the US, the biggest prize in Britain, the Booker Prize, has recently been revamped and, after years of being attacked for picking obscure or politically correct books, it’s back picking crowd pleasers. And, as Robert McCrum reports in his weekly column for The Observer, this year’s list of candidates is strong indeed. “At the moment, I suspect even the jury has no inkling about the outcome . . . . Anything goes.”