| Administrative History | The Booker Prize, first awarded in 1969, is a literary prize for the best English language novel of the year written by a British or Commonwealth author. The original sponsor of the prize was the food wholesaler Booker plc., whose Authors' Division owned the copyright of a number of well-known authors. In 2001, Booker plc. merged with the Big Food Group plc. In response to this change, the Booker Prize Foundation was formed to take responsibility for the prize. A new sponsor was also sought, and the role was won by The Man Group plc., a global investment management business, and between 2003 and 2019, the award was known as the Man Booker Prize. In 2019, the Man Group's sponsorship of the prize came to an end, and Crankstart, the charitable foundation of Sir Michael Moritz and his wife Harriet Heyman, was announced as the new sponsor of the prize. For further details on the history of the prize, see 'The Man Booker Prize: 35 years of the best in contemporary fiction 1969-2003', published by the Booker Prize Foundation, 2003. |