Hilary Mantel became just the third person in history to win a second Man Booker Prize award today when she accepted the honor for her novel Bring Up The Bodies.

According to the BBC, Mantel won her first Man Booker Prize in 2009 for her book Wolf Hall. Bring Up The Bodies is a sequel to Wolf Hall. 

Sir Peter Stothard, chairman of the judges, said:

“This double accolade is uniquely deserved … Hilary Mantel has rewritten the rules for historical fiction.”

Mantel said:

“You wait 20 years for a Booker Prize and two come along at once … I know how privileged and lucky I am to be standing here tonight. I regard this as an act of faith and a vote of confidence.”

The New York Times notes that Mantel will be writing one more book about Thomas Cromwell, an adviser to King Henry VIII. The third book in the trilogy, called The Mirror and the Light, will continue the story until Cromwell’s execution.

Along with the prestigious award, Mantel will receive a £50,000 ($80,000) check. The BBC notes that the £50,000 check is just a small portion of the monetary windfall that comes with winning the Man Booker Prize. Every winner since 1996 has grossed more than $1.5 million.

Sir Peter described Bring Up The Bodies as “a very remarkable piece of English prose that transcends the work already written by a great English prose writer. This is a bloody story about the death of Anne Boleyn, but Hilary Mantel is a writer who thinks through the blood. She uses her power of prose to create moral ambiguity and the real uncertainty of political life. She has recast the most essential period of our modern English history; we have the greatest modern English prose writer reviving possibly one of the best known pieces of English history. It is well-trodden territory with an inevitable outcome, and yet she is able to bring it to life as though for the first time.”

Have you read Bring Up The Bodies? 

Hilary Mantel Wins Second Man Booker Prize Award For ‘Bring Up The Bodies’ is a post from: The Inquisitr