Hilary Mantel wins Booker prize for fiction

In a brief private list of Indian writers, the man Booker prize this year went to British writer Hilary Mantel for his moving story about the 16th century entitled 'Wolf Hall'.

Mantel, 57, was 50,000 pounds as a prize on Tuesday evening in what is considered one of the literary awards for English-speaking world's most prestigious.

Indian writers like Salman Rushdie, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy and Aravind Adiga has won the award previously, but this year's list did not contain any Indian.

Other authors who made the short list this year included AS Byatt, JM Coetzee, Adam Fould, Simon Mawer and Sarah Waters.

'Wolf Hall' is located in the 1520s and tells the story of Thomas Cromwell's rise to fame in the Tudor court.

In accepting the award at the Guildhall, said Mantel whose win Booker Prize was like being in a train crash "in this moment I am happy flying through the air."

He told the audience, who had taken her about 20 years to decide whether to write this book.

She said: "I could not start until I felt safe enough to tell my editor - what an editor will always hear -" it will take several years, I know. "But they took on the chin."

Mantel added: "When I started the book I knew I had to do something very difficult, I had an interest to historians, was to entertain jaded bodies in the creation of critical, and I had to catch it imagination of the general reader.

Chairman of Judges James Naughtie said: "Our decision is based on sheer hard work. Bold his story, his stage setting. The unusual way Hilary Mantel has created what one judge said it was a modern novel, a contemporary novel that set in the 16th century. We thought it was an unusual piece of storytelling. "

Mantel was a favorite of the bookmakers to win the prize. Ion Trewin, Literary Director of Booker prizes, said the last time one of the favorites are back with the price it was life Yann Martel "Pi" in 2002.

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, first awarded in 1969, promotes the best in fiction by rewarding the best book of the year.