Man Booker Prize won by Hilary Mantel’s Bring up the Bodies

Hilary Mantel has won the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for her novel Bring up the Bodies, the sequel to Wolf Hall, which won the prize in 2009.

Mantel is the first woman and the first British author to win the prestigious literary prize twice.

“This double accolade is uniquely deserved,” said Sir Peter Stothard, chairman of the judges.

The book is about Thomas Cromwell, an adviser to King Henry VIII, and charts the bloody downfall of Anne Boleyn.

It is the second book in a trilogy.

A third instalment, to be called The Mirror and the Light, will continue Cromwell’s story until his execution in 1540.

Mantel was announced as the winner at London’s Guildhall on Tuesday night.