By James Aitchison

Winning the Booker Prize is every author’s dream.  It is arguably the world’s most prestigious literary award.  It bestows distinction upon authors and virtually guarantees a boost in sales. 

But few people know that the award had its genesis when James Bond creator Ian Fleming set out for a game of golf with an old Etonian businessman Sir Jock Campbell.  Campbell owned sugar estates in Guyana. 

It was an autumn day in 1963.  After lunch at Campbell’s house at Nettlebed, Oxfordshire, Fleming and Campbell had strolled to the 13^th hole when suddenly Fleming asked, “Jock, would you like to buy me?”

A shocked Campbell asked, “What do you mean?”

Fleming explained that his enormous earnings from James Bond books and movies were being consumed by supertax.  His private company, Glidrose Productions Ltd., which controlled the royalties of his books, was subject to a high tax rate that was unsustainable.  However, Fleming suggested, if Glidrose became part of a big quoted public company, such as Booker Brothers, his income would be taxed at a lower corporation rate.

Campbell gave it a moment’s thought and politely declined.  “Not our cup of tea,” he reportedly said, and the two friends resumed their golf.

Two weeks later, and at the same hole, Fleming made the same suggestion again.  He asked the sugar magnate what he thought he was worth.  Campbell estimated, “About £200,000.”  But no deal was struck.

A month later, Fleming confessed to Campbell that he had tried to sell Glidrose to two merchant banks but they had refused.  This time, Campbell — knowing his old friend had only a few months to live — promised to raise the request at the next board meeting.

Much to Campbell’s relief his board was keen to take up Fleming’s offer.  In March 1964, Booker Brothers bought a 51% stake in Glidrose for £100,000.  Fleming’s one-man “cottage industry” of James Bond books and movies was secure.  And not a moment too soon.  From Russia with Love was commanding packed houses in four West End cinemas simultaneously.  In Britain, Fleming’s latest book On Her Majesty’s Secret Service sold 75,000 copies in hardcover, while Dr No and From Russia with Love had sold one million copies each.  In the United States, over ten million James Bond paperbacks had been sold.

By the time Fleming died, he had sold 30 million books.  In less than two years his sales had doubled.  Booker Brothers had easily earned back its £100,000 investment.  Merchandising was now a rapidly increasing factor in Glidrose’s earnings, and so too were new books in the Bond franchise written by selected authors such as John Gardner, Sebastian Faulks, Jeffrey Deaver, William Boyd and Anthony Horowitz.

….

Sir Jock Campbell had always loved literature.  And by helping Fleming, he led the family sugar company into an entirely new field of business: Bookers Authors’ Division.

Taking advantage of a loophole in the UK Finance Act, Booker Brothers soon added the copyrights of other legendary writers to its literary portfolio.  Authors included Agatha Christie, Dennis Wheatley, Georgette Heyer, along with playwrights Robert Bolt and Harold Pinter.

The copyrights of Agatha Christie contributed the most profit to the Authors’ Division. 

Like Fleming, Christie’s tax debts had reached alarming levels.  Her earnings were subject to both basic British tax as well as exceptionally high supertax.  At one stage she depended on her American copyright earnings to pay her British income tax!  She resignedly called herself “the Hired Wage Slave”.  In 1968, Bookers Books acquired a 51% holding in Agatha Christie Ltd., later increased to 64%.  In April 1975, they acquired the remainder.  When Christie needed funds to settle old tax debts, she borrowed from Booker Books, the loan secured by her own copyrights.

….

From that game of golf and Fleming’s plea for help, a family sugar company —  supervised by Sir Jock Campbell — came to sponsor the Booker Prize for Fiction, established in 1969.  Certainly, as “pay back” goes, it was a superb gift to authors.

In 2002, the investment management house Man Group took over sponsorship but retained the name Booker.

In 2001, Australian author Peter Carey became the first author to win the Booker Prize for a second time.  J. M.  Coetzee, Hilary Mantel and Margaret Atwood have also won the Booker twice.

In early 2019, Man Group announced it would discontinue its sponsorship of the Man Booker Prize.  A new sponsor, a charitable foundation called Crankstart, announced it would sponsor the prize for another five years starting 2020.  The award title was changed to simply The Booker Prize.