Man Booker Prize 2012: Favourite Prevails As Hilary Mantel Wins £50,000 Award

The Man Booker Prize 2012 winner, Hilary Mantel takes home £50,000 and the respect of her contemporaries with her book Bring up the Bodies, the sequel to Wolf Hall, which won the prize in 2009, The BBC reports.

And that double makes her the first woman to win it twice, as well as the first Brit, to sweeten the victory even more. "This double accolade is uniquely deserved," said Sir Peter Stothard, chairman of the judges. It comes as no surprise that she should take home the literary gong, given that the odds of her doing so were slashed to a derisory 1/50, meaning that any stake would have yielded a paltry return. Maybe someone, somewhere knew something we didn’t, but any sensible betting folks would have likely backed Will Self at a more attractive 2/1. His book: Umbrella, represented a first time nomination for the prolific writer, who is equally at home contributing to prestigious journals as he is with novels. Sadly, for Will, this wasn’t his year, and Mantel now faces the daunting task of finishing off a trilogy that, up to now, has received the most prestigious prize in literature for every entry.

"You wait 20 years for a Booker Prize and two come along at once," Jokes Mantel as she received the award. "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." She now takes home £52,500 in total as prize money, but will see a meteoric rise in sales, which will likely result in a far bigger monetary reward.