Hilary Mantel wins Booker prize for fiction

British novelist Hilary Mantel’s historical doorstopper, Wolf Hall, set in the court of Henry VIII, has won this year’s £50,000 Man Booker Prize beating five other contenders, including two previous Booker winners – A.S. Byatt and J.M. Coetzee.

For the first time in many years, there was no Asian writer in contention.

Bookies’ favourite

Wolf Hall, a fictional account of the rise of Henry VIII’s scheming adviser and fixer, Thomas Cromwell, was a bookies favourite right from the start but the judges were split and chair of judges Jim Naughtie, a BBC broadcaster, admitted that it was not a unanimous choice.

However, he insisted that in the end everyone was happy to go with the majority decision.