British-American Salman Rushdie was awarded a special prize at the British Book Awards. The 75-year-old was awarded the Freedom to Publish special prize for only the second time.
Rushdie narrowly escaped an assassination attempt last year and has been blind in one eye ever since. He opposed efforts to purge historical books of offensive terms, as was the case with works by children's book author Roald Dahl and James Bond author Ian Fleming. "The idea of making James Bond politically correct is almost bizarre," he said.