Media    From 1969 

Booker Prize

Categories: Benefactor, Literature

Literary award. Originally known as the Booker–McConnell Prize, after the company Booker, McConnell Ltd who first sponsored the event. When administration of the prize was transferred to the Booker Prize Foundation in 2002, the title sponsor became the investment company Man Group, which opted to retain "Booker" as part of its official title.

We've always wondered at the naming of this award for book-writers so we checked: The business of Booker, McConnell used to be sugar, rum etc. in British Guiana - with a questionable reputation for its treatment of the workforce. In 1952 Jock Campbell took over the company and turned this around becoming a benevolent company. He also initiated the company's interest in literature. So the name of the prize is just more more example of nominative determinism.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Booker Prize

Commemorated ati

Hugh Walpole

This plaque is possibly spurious. It has definitely upset the Chairman of the...

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Charlotte Heber-Percy

Charlotte Heber-Percy

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1 memorial
Commercial Motor Users of Hackney

Commercial Motor Users of Hackney

The name suggest a group of local business people coming together around the use of new-fangled motor-powered conveyances. The text of the plaque tells us that they also had charitable activities. ...

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1 memorial
Jessica Turner

Jessica Turner

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Brent Council

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10 memorials
Queen Mary II

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Yeşim Özkan

Yeşim Özkan

20 years old, artist

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Thomas Leverton Donaldson

Thomas Leverton Donaldson

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Person, Architecture

1 memorial
Artmongers

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An art company, set up by Goldsmiths College graduates Patricio Forrester and Julian Sharples, with the aim of improving public spaces.

Group, Art, Community / Clubs

2 memorials