London, Nov 17: India-born writer Salman Rushdie is one of the front-runners for an Oscar-style lifetime achievement award which the organisers of Booker, Britain's prestigious literary prize, plan to introduce soon. Besides Rushdie, himself a Booker winner for his 'Midnight's Children', other contenders for the award are Liverpool-born Beryl Bainbridge, grand old man of us letters Norman Mailer and John Updike, an American who since 1960 has turned out consistently perceptive novels.
The competition would be open to authors from any English-speaking country, including the USA, while only British and Commonwealth authors were eligible for the booker fiction prize.
Plans for the lifetime award, which would be given every alternate year are being formulated by the booker advisory panel and will be discussed soon by its sponsors.

"The nearest analogy is a life-time award at the Oscars," said a member of the booker panel, which met on Friday to consider the proposals. Bureau Report