Natalie Haynes, British classicist, Guardian columnist, author, comedienne and guest at the 2015 Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival, says the prospect of judging the Man Booker filled her with apprehension.
''I was a bit worried about doing it, but not because I was expecting to create a scandal. It's just that it is probably the most famous literary prize in the world, and the amount of attention paid to it across the globe is frankly terrifying. You get sent a list of all the articles and radio and TV mentions of it, every day, from all over the world.
"It does make you feel like everyone is watching (and hoping for scandal), which, in turn, makes you take it very seriously. Whenever people ask if I really read 151 books in 204 days, I can say yes. Because how would you dare skip reading a novel when you know everyone will yell at you if it turns out to be a work of genius which you missed?''
Reading that many books that quickly was a challenge, she concedes.
''Oh god, it was crushing. You think it will get easier once you get to halfway. And it really, really doesn't. I know it's not like working down a mine, or something physically demanding.
"But reading a book every other day for 100 days, and then a book every day for the next 100 days? That is tough. Your eyes hurt and your brain aches.
"I had to go to hospital one day when one of my eyes was a real mess. And I was sitting in the waiting room, reading another frickin' book. Obviously I would do it again, for sure, because it was amazing. But I would never pretend it was easy.''
An argument often levelled at literary prizes is that there can only be one winner and as a reader's response to a novel is always subjective, then selecting the winner must still surely come down to personal preference.
''I think that there are two basic strands to judging anything like this,'' Haynes says.
''One is that some books just are better-written than others - they have better prose (more beautiful, more poetic, more evocative, more descriptive, less cliched etc), they have better structure (I have a pet hate of novels that withhold information for no reason but a vague belief that it will be more suspenseful that way, and then dump the entire plot into the last 50 pages), they set themselves a more interesting challenge, etc.
''And the other strand, of course, is down to taste. But I'm not sure I think that is unique to books or even the arts in general. It would be the same if you were judging something like wine, I guess: you might have a personal preference for one grape variety over another, but you also know that some wine vintages are better than others, that's why they can charge more for it in a restaurant.''
In the past, personal preferences have often been the source of heated arguments among judging panels.
But Haynes' Man Booker judging panel experience sounds far less torrid and more like an erudite afternoon tea.
''Our discussions were always fantastic - full of academic questions and thinking and rigour and - often - hilarity. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst is a world authority on Dickens and Lewis Carroll. But he's also really funny. And I used to be a stand-up comedian, so I guess the lowering of the tone was inevitable.
"Anyway, it was like the smartest book club in the world, with the largest reading list anyone has ever seen. And no-one ever shouted or argued. We just discussed and disagreed and thought and reconsidered. And always over cake. I can't recommend the cake enough.''
Then it was all over bar the shouting, and Eleanor Catton's win with The Luminaries certainly had plenty of that.
While the entire country seemed to want to bathe in Eleanor's glory, including the prime minister, the author herself did not enjoy the expectation of being an ambassador for her country.
Haynes says she can identify with the price of fame that comes with winning the Man Brooker prize.
''I can certainly see how being an author doesn't mean you would choose to be a celebrity. You can want to write books and have those books read, and earn enough to pay your bills, without ever wanting to be a household name in the book world or anywhere else. And we did sort of thrust that on her, I suppose, though it was clearly her fault for writing such a wonderful book!
''I think fame is probably always a double-edged sword. And - though I have only met her once - I think Eleanor seems like the most grounded of people. I wouldn't have wished any controversy on her, but I'm confident she can handle it. She's crazy-smart and extremely nice.
"So, honestly, I think the prime minister should pick on someone his own size. (Wait, did I imagine reading a news story about him pulling a waitress' hair? Maybe he just has a weird attitude to women? Some men do.)''
Haynes herself has recently won the British 2015 Classical Association prize.
She says the prize is given annually to the person who spends as much time as possible banging on about classics.
''After a novel about Greek tragedy, a radio series about the ancient world, and a TV documentary about ancient Greek sculpture, I figured I was in with a chance. But still, after years spent judging every prize from the Man Booker to the Sony awards, it is lovely to win something instead.''
At the festival
• Lightning Talks, today 11.30am-12.30pm, Regent Theatre, Octagon.
Non-fiction publisher Robbie Burton introduces an electric line-up of international guests. Writers often lead parallel lives and Lightning Talks is a quick-fire hour in which each author talks about what makes both them and their writing pulse. Featuring Nick Davies, Natalie Haynes, Zia Haider Rahman and Helen Macdonald.
• Maggie, Me and Natalie, today 5pm-6pm, Regent Theatre, Octagon. Damian Barr in conversation with Natalie Haynes.
• An Ancient Guide to Modern Life, tomorrow, 10.15-11.15am, Fullwood Room, 1 Harrop St, Dunedin Centre. Brit Natalie Haynes, author of An Ancient Guide to Modern Life, guides a whistlestop tour around Ancient Greek tragedy and explains why all TV detective shows are based on Sophocles' plays. She will also talk about The Amber Fury, her most recent novel, which is set in modern-day Edinburgh, the Athens of the North.
