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Sunday 29 November 2015

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Hilary Mantel becomes first author to win Booker and Costa in same year

Hilary Mantel has become the first author ever to win the Man Booker Prize and Costa Book Award in the same year, for her bestselling novel Bring Up the Bodies.

Mantel, already a double Booker prize winner, secured the record as she was awarded the 2012 Costa Book Award on Tuesday night, beating an all-female shortlist of five.

After deliberations lasting just one hour, a panel of judges proclaimed her the overall winner of the £30,000 prize.

Chair Dame Jenni Murray hailed her work as "on stilts above the rest".

"I would like to tell you there was blood on the floor," she said of the debate to find the winner. "But there was absolute unanimity.

"She simply stood head and shoulders – more than head and shoulders – above the rest; she stood on stilts."

Responding to some critics, who argued that Mantel should forgo the prize to give much-needed publicity to a lesser known author, Murray said the issue was "completely irrelevant" to their final decision.

"We couldn't allow the number of times she had been lauded to affect our decision," she said. "It is simply the best book."

Mantel had already been widely tipped as the clear favourite, after winning the Man Booker prize for both Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.

Her book, the second in a trilogy, tells the story of Thomas Cromwell under the reign of Henry VIII, as his affections switch from Anne Boleyn to the young Jane Seymour.

Mantel triumphed over shortlist of five authors, representing different categories of popular literature, who have already been awarded a £5,000 prize each.

Newcomer Francesca Segal secured the first novel prize for The Innocents, while Sally Gardner won the children's book award for her futuristic tale of a dyslexic schoolboy in Maggot Moon.

Husband and wife team Mary and Bryan Talbot were awarded for their graphic novel Dotter of her Father's Eyes, while Kathleen Jamie won the poetry award for The Overhaul.

The results were announced in London last night by a panel chaired by Woman's Hour presenter Dame Jenni Murray and including actress Jenny Agutter, broadcaster Katie Derham and author Wendy Holden.

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