LONDON (AP) -- Sir Michael Caine, chairman of the food and agri-business company Booker PLC and the driving force behind Britain's prestigious Booker Prize for fiction, has died. He was 71.
Caine died of cancer Saturday in London, the company said.Possessed of a strong social conscience and a keen mind, Caine believed companies should be active beyond business and saw the $32,000 Booker Prize as an encouragement to new writing in Britain and its former colonies.
Considered Britain's highest literary honor, it has recognized novelists such as Salman Rushdie, Iris Murdoch, Ian McEwan and Peter Carey.
The prize, modeled on France's Prix Goncourt, was established in 1968 when Caine was an executive and board member of Booker PLC.
He chaired the Booker Prize Management Committee for 23 years, hosting the annual award dinner that is now televised live.