LONDON — British writer Hilary Mantel won the prestigious Booker literary prize for a second time Tuesday with her blood-soaked Tudor saga “Bring Up the Bodies,” which the head of the judging panel said had “rewritten the book” on historical fiction.
Mantel, who took the $82,000 award in 2009 for “Wolf Hall,” is the first British author, and the first woman, to achieve a Booker double.
“You wait 20 years for a Booker Prize, and two come along at once,” Mantel said as she accepted the award. “I regard this as an act of faith and a vote of confidence.”
“Bring Up the Bodies” is the first sequel to win the prize. It and “Wolf Hall” are parts of a planned trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, the powerful and ambiguous chief minister to King Henry VIII.
The prize is open to writers from Britain, Ireland and the British Commonwealth.
