The Whitbread’s top prize goes to one of the winners of prizes already awarded in five categories — novel, first novel, poetry, biography and children’s book. Each category winner receives $8,700, while Spurling receives the $43,000 Whitbread Book of the Year Award.

Earlier bookmakers had touted short story writer Ali Smith as the likely winner, but in the end her book — The Accidental — and Tash Aw’s Malaysian-set saga — The Harmony Silk Factory — were not in the final three as judges continued their deliberations Tuesday.

In the end, Michael Murpurgo, chairman of the judges, said that Spurling beat off strong competition from poetry winner Christopher Logue’s Cold Calls, a modern reworking of Homer’s Iliad and Kate Thompson’s children’s book, The New Policeman.

"Somehow she managed to paint a picture of a painter that was accessible to people not necessarily familiar with art. It’s an extraordinary achievement to write a book of that length, which when you get to the end you are sorry it’s finished," Murpurgo said.