Margaret Atwood will share her second Booker Prize with Bernardine Evaristo after the pair were declared joint winners.
The Canadian author won the prize for her novel The Testaments, which was released 34 years after the critically acclaimed smash The Handmaid's Tale.
In a surprise decision the judges also awarded Evaristo the prize for her novel Girl, Woman, Other.
She was born in Woolwich, south London, holds a PhD from Goldsmith's, and continues to live in the capital.
Evaristo has written eight works, and produced poetry, verse fiction, literary criticism and essays.
Of Anglo-Nigerian descent, she has shed light on the lives of modern British women, taking an interest in the African diaspora.
Her works include The Emperor's Babe and Hello Mum, which have been adapted into BBC Radio 4 plays.
Evaristo's 'Girl, Woman, Other' tells the stories of 12 characters, mainly female and black and aged 19 to 93, living in Britain.
Each year a panel of judges awards the prize to "the best novel of the year written in English and published in the UK and Ireland," with the winner receiving £50,000.
"Neither of us expected to win this," Atwood said in her acceptance speech.
She previously won the award in 2000 for The Blind Assasin.
At 79 Atwood is now the oldest ever Booker winner.
Her career proper began in the early 1960s with poetry collections and has since seen her pen 40 works.
