Adam Foulds has become one of six novelists on the prestigious Man Booker Prize shortlist, announced today.

The son of Rabbi Michael Foulds of New Essex Masorti congregation, Adam Foulds has won consistent praise for his work. The Quickening Maze, his third novel, is an outsider on the Booker Prize shortlist at 10-1. The winning novel, whose author will receive a £50,000 prize, will be announced on October 6.

As an “Essex boy”, Adam Foulds has turned his attention to real events for The Quickening Maze, set in and around the High Beach Asylum in Epping Forest in 1840.

The story centres on the life of the great nature poet John Clare, who, after years struggling with alcohol, critical neglect and depression, enters the asylum. At the same time another poet, the young Alfred Tennyson, moves nearby.

The JC’s chief fiction reviewer, David Herman said: “Foulds is versatile, smart and has a terrific turn of phrase. He is already one of the best writers of his generation.”