Hilary Mantel, 60, took home the 2012 Booker Prize and £50,000 for her historical novel Bring Up the Bodies, part two of a trilogy that charts the life of Thomas Cromwell. This was her second time winning the Booker, her first was in 2009 for part one of the same trilogy. The win makes her just the third writer to win the prize twice, and also the first woman and British writer to accomplish the feat.

Sir Peter Stothard, Chairman of the Booker judges, declared Mantel “the greatest modern English prose writer” currently writing. He added that she has “rewritten the book on writing historical fiction.”

Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies beat out a shortlist that included Will Self’s Umbrella, Tan Twan Eng’s The Garden of Evening Mists, Deborah Levy’s Swimming Home, Alison Moore’s The Lighthouse, and Jeet Thayil’s Narcopolis.

Source: The Guardian

Photo from Sydney Morning Herald