Hilary Mandel Wins Man Booker Prize

Posted on October 6, 2009

Hilary Mandel has won the Man Booker Prize for the novel, Wolf Hall. The Bookseller reports:

On picking up the 50,000 [pound] award at tonight's (6th October) ceremony at London's Guildhall, the author said she was "happily flying through the air". The win will come as no surprise to the bookies, who had Mantel leading the pack since the shortlist was announced a month ago.
This morning The Bookseller reported that Mantel had become the first ever odds-on favourite in the race to win the Man Booker prize: Ladbroke's was offering odds of 8/13, while at William Hill she was placed at 10/11. The last time the favourite won was 2002, when Yann Martell's Life of Pi (Canongate) took home the prize.

James Naughtie, the head of the judges panel said the book was "a thoroughly modern novel set in the 16th century" with a "vast narrative sweep that gleams on every page with luminous and mesmerising detail". Hilary Mantel has won several other awards, including the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize for Fludd.

You can read more about Hilary and the Man Booker Prize here.