Sir Michael Moritz and his wife will give £1.5 million a year to the prize TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER THE TIMESA Silicon Valley billionaire has come to the rescue of the Booker prize by committing to sponsor the literary award for at least five years. Sir Michael Moritz, a venture capitalist born in Wales, and his wife Harriet Heyman, a US novelist, will use their charitable foundation Crankstart to provide about £1.5 million a year. Concerns had grown over the future of the literary prize after the withdrawal of the Man Group hedge fund, which had sponsored the award since 2002. The award had become a lightning rod for criticism of corporate sponsorship of the arts with Sebastian Faulks, author of Birdsong, describing it as “the enemy”. The Booker prize Foundation said yesterday that there were no plans to change the £50,000 prize money or…

Source: The Times February 28, 2019 00:00 UTC