British Writer Hilary Mantel won Booker Prize for Second Time

British Writer Hilary Mantel on 16 October 2012 won the prestigious literary prize, the Booker Prize for her novel Bring up the Bodies, the second in a historical trilogy set during the reign of King Henry VIII.

Hilary Mantel had earlier won the Booker prize in 2009 for "Wolf Hall," the first novel in the trilogy.

Hilary Mantel is the third author to win the prize twice, alongside South-African-born J.M. Coetzee and Australian Peter Carey. With this she also became the first British author, and the first woman, to achieve a double Booker Prize.

Bring Up the Bodies” is also the first sequel to win the prize. Bring up the Bodies and Wolf Hall are parts of a planned trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, the powerful and ambiguous chief minister to King Henry VIII.

Hilary Mantel beat five other shortlisted books to take the prize.  She was the Bookies favourite, although Britain's Will Self was also considered a strong contender for the century-spanning stream of consciousness "Umbrella."

Indian poet Jeet Thayil was also nominated for his first novel, "Narcopolis," set among heroin addicts in 1970s and 80s Mumbai, and Britain's Alison Moore for "The Lighthouse," about a middle-aged man's life-changing ferry trip to Germany.

Man Booker Prize:

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and success.

The selection process for the winner of the prize commences with the formation of an advisory committee which includes an author, two publishers, a literary agent, a bookseller, a librarian, and a chairperson appointed by the Booker Prize Foundation.