Bibliofemme News
|
  |
13/12/2005
Whitbread to abandon awards
The Whitbread retail group are to pull out of the book awards that they have
been sponsoring since 1971 as they no longer consider the association to be
commercially viable.
A spokeswoman for Whitbread said the decision would officially be announced
this week.
"After long consideration, we decided our sponsorship was no longer
commercially sensible, even under one of our other brand names," she said.
"We are not about to let the awards just disappear and are certain we will
find a sponsor as there are few opportunities like this."
The company intends to end its link after the 2005 winner is announced on 24
January.
The Whitbread Awards are made up of five categories - novel of the year,
poetry and a children's book category - and the winner of each receives
£5,000.
The five category winners are then shortlisted for the overall Book of the
Year prize.
This year's nominees in the novel section include Nick Hornby and Salman
Rushdie.
London waitress competes with top authors for Whitbread
<- back to the news
|
