Baileys are to end their sponsorship of the Women's Prize for Fiction.

Diageo said that it "regretfully decided to make way for a new sponsors in order to work on new global projects." 

This year's award will be the last they will sponsor but the prize will search for a new commercial partner from 2018.

The Women's Prize for Fiction is awarded year to the woman writer to what judges consider the best female written english novel

Author Kate Mosse co-founded it because she believed female authors were being overlooked for major literary prizes

Previous winners of the prize, which has been running since 1996, include Zadie Smith, Ali Smith, Lionel Shriver and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Baileys took over in 2014 Orange )The phone people) where the main sponsers of the award for 17 years.

The winning author receives £30,000 in prize money