A First Novel & An Established Author

Established author John Banville has won the Spanish Literary Prize: The Man Booker Prize-winning writer John Banville has been awarded Spain's prestigious Prince of Asturias literature award.


Banville beat 23 other contenders to take the €50,000 (around £40,600) prize. Literature is one of eight different fields in which prizes are awarded by the Asturias Foundation each year, rewarding individuals and organisations around the world who make a significant contribution to arts, sports, science and public affairs.


At the other end of the scale first time author, the Irish writer Eimear McBride has won the Baileys book prize for her first novel, A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, beating bookie's favourite Donna Tartt's gigantic third novel, The Goldfinch.


Although Tartt was tipped from the start for her 771-pager, it was McBride's dark family tale, written in the hurtling, comma-free voice of an unnamed narrator, that won over the judges of the women's prize for fiction.