Literati gather at pounds 30,000 prize launch to begin search for best of British writers

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Lord Gowrie, new chairman of the Arts Council, talking with V S Naipaul at the launch yesterday of the 1995 David Cohen British Literature Prize. The biennial prize, worth pounds 30,000, was won last year by Naipaul and is awarded for a lifetime's achievement by a British writer. The jury will choose the winner by next March