THE BOOKER Prize has dropped plans to make American writers eligible for the award, and is instead pushing for a second prize, for international achievement. Provided the Booker’s advisory committeesucceeds in persuading its sponsors, the Man Group, to fund the award, the first winner could be crowned in spring 2005.

“A working party spent some time considering an expansion into America,” says my source, “but they considered that it was not practical because of the number of books judges would have to read.”

Former Booker Prize winner Ben Okri is guardedly in favour of the international idea. “The purpose is good – it’s enrichment,” he tells me.

“We absolutely need to know more about other imaginations and cultures.

But the subdivision and multiplication of prizes can lead to weariness. The Booker’s integrity is good, and dilution can be dangerous.”

As with the Nobel Prize for Literature, the International Booker will not be awarded simply for the best novel of the year but for a writer’s entire oeuvre. “It could be a good way of recognising the work of people like Dame Beryl Bainbridge, whose books have been shortlisted five times for the Booker but never won,” I am told.

The International Booker will be decided by a separate panel of judges to the traditional prize, and awarded at a different time of year. Any writer whose work is available in English, either in the original or translation, will be eligible.

Booker organisers are confident that Man will give the new prize the go-ahead, as the hedge- fund management group is seeking to increase its international profile, especially in the States.

Meanwhile, the Booker camp is already throwing down the gauntlet to the competition.

“It would have no political connotations whatsoever, which the Nobel Prize has,” I am told.