A FORMER Bancroft's schoolboy has been shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize for literature.
Novelist Adams Foulds, 34, was nominated for the coveted international award for his third book, The Quickening Maze - which is set in Epping Forest.
The novel centres on the experiences of the alcoholic 19th century poet John Clare during his internment at the High Beach mental asylum in the 1840s.
Mr Foulds, who grew up in Gants Hill, worked temporarily as a fork lift truck driver before becoming a writer.
His talents were first brought to public attention when he won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award for first novel, The Truth About These Strange Times.
Mr Foulds has nominated for the £50,000 prize along with two-time winner South African writer J M Coetzee, Simon Mawer, A S Byatt, Hilary Mantel and Sarah Waters.
The winner will be announced on October 6.
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