Booker winner in plagiarism row. In which year did that headline appear? Was it 2002, when Yann Martel was accused of lifting the plot of Life of Pi from a Brazilian book? Or was it 1997, when Graham Swift's Last Orders was judged to have veered too close to William Faulkner's 1930 novel As I Lay Dying?
Or was it last weekend, when a Booker-shortlisted novel by a past winner - Atonement by Ian McEwen - was the latest in line for this deadly charge?
