Most Booker Prize nominations without winning

The most nominations for the Booker Prize without winning is five by Beryl Bainbridge (UK, 1932–2010), who was nominated for her novels The Dress Maker (1973), The Bottle Factory Outing (1974), An Awfully Big Adventure (1990), Every Man for Himself (1996) and Master Georgie (1998).

As of 14 September 2016, the most Booker Prize nominations overall is six, for Iris Murdoch (Ireland) for her novels The Nice and the Good (shortlisted in 1969), Bruno's Dream (shortlisted in 1970), The Black Prince (shortlisted in 1973), The Sea, the Sea (which won in 1978), The Good Apprentice (shortlisted in 1985) and The Book and the Brotherhood (shortlisted in 1987).

As well as Beryl Bainbridge, two other authors have been shortlisted five times, but both of them won the prize with one of their books: Margaret Atwood (who won with The Blind Assassin in 2000) and Ian McEwan (who won with Amsterdam in 1998).