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Ned Kelly: from bushranger to prize winner |
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It has long been the preserve of the literati and the chattering classes who might normally look to raise art high above wealth in importance.
Now, though, the Booker Prize is to associate itself with that most exclusive of financial worlds – hedge funds.
The UK’s leading award for contemporary fiction, currently held by Peter Carey for his novel True history of the Kelly Gang based on the life of Australian outlaw Ned Kelly, is to become the Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
Hedge fund group Man is to sponsor the prize to the tune of £2.5 million over the next five years.
The Booker has been known to court controversy on occasion. Salman Rushdie, a winner in 1981 with Midnight’s Children, was forced into hiding after The Satanic Verses, shortlisted in 1988, provoked a death sentence from Muslim extremists.
Many greats of contemporary fiction have been recognized by the Booker since its launch in 1969. Dame Iris Murdoch, recently the subject of an Oscar-winning biopic starring Dame Judi Dench and Kate Winslet, was a regular on the shortlist and a winner in 1978 for The Sea, The Sea.
Harvey McGrath, chairman of Man, says sponsorship of the Booker will be an important part of the group’s marketing drive as it looks to raise its international profile.
Jonathan Taylor, chairman of the Booker Prize Foundation Trustees, says they had many enquiries from possible sponsors after The Big Food Group, which owns Booker, said it was ending its association with the prize.
“We chose the Man Group because of the cultural affinity between our two organizations.” He did not say whether Man offered the most cash.
