Hilary Mantel wins 2009 Man Booker Prize

Hilary Mantel has been announced as the winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for her book Wolf Hall.

She was awarded the prize at a dinner at London's Guildhall and as well as receiving a cheque for £50,000 and designer bound edition of her own book, can also anticipate greatly increased sales and prestige.

Mantel had been the bookmakers' favourite to win the prize, with William Hill reporting prior to the Tuesday evening event that some 90 per cent of wagers placed on the 2009 ceremony had been in her favour.

Set in the 1520s, Mantel's novel is published by Fourth Estate (Harper Collins) and tells of the rise of Thomas Cromwell to power within the Tudor Court.

It took 57-year-old Mantel five years to write the novel and after receiving the prize, she joked she had warned her agent and publisher the book would take a long time to be finished.

After thanking her family and the judges, she added: 'Peter Carey once said winning the Booker Prize was like being in a train crash.

'If that is so, I am happily flying through the air!'

The ceremony's judging panel was chaired by the Today Programme's James Naughtie, with author Lucasta Miller, English professor John Mullan, comedienne Sue Perkins and literary journalist Michael Prodger also serving on the panel for the 2009 event.

Naughtie said the judges' decision to award the prize had come after a 'long and passionate argument'.

The winning book was praised for its 'ambition, boldness and... beautiful prose'.

Chair of judges Naughtie added: 'Hilary Mantel has given us a thoroughly modern novel set in the 16th century. Wolf Hall has a vast narrative sweep that gleams on every page with luminous and mesmerising detail.'

He went on: 'It probes the mysteries of power by examining and describing the meticulous detailings in Henry VIII's court, revealing in thrilling prose how politics and history is made by men and women.

'In the words of Mantel's Cromwell, whose story this is, 'the fate of peoples is made like this, two men in small rooms. Forget the coronations, the conclaves of cardinals, the pomp and processions. This is how the world changes.''

Shortlisted author JM Coetzee had previously won the award in 1983 (for Life & Times of Michael K) and in 1999 for Disgrace, while Adam Foulds was the youngest nominee on the list at 34, and Sarah Waters had been shortlisted twice previously.

Simon Mawer was also shortlisted, for his eighth novel The Glass Room, while nominees AS Byatt and Mantel have both served as judges of the Man Booker Prize.