British novelist Hilary Mantel made literary history by becoming the first woman and the first British author to become a two-time winner of the Man Booker Prize for fiction.
Mantel picked up the prize, one of the highest profile awards in English-language literature, for part two of her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, "Bring up the Bodies", at a ceremony at London's Guildhall yesterday.
The 60-year-old won in 2009 with "Wolf Hall", the first of the historical fiction saga with King Henry VIII's chief minister as the protagonist. Accepting her prize, the winner said: "Well, I don't know, you wait 20 years for a Booker Prize and two come along at once."
She called the award an "act of faith and a vote of confidence." "I know how lucky and privileged I am to be standing here tonight," she told the audience.