British author Alan Hollinghurst won the Booker Prize, one of the world's most prestigious literary awards, tonight for his critically acclaimed novel The Line of Beauty.
"This was an incredibly difficult and close decision," said the chairman of the judges, former British culture minister Mr Chris Smith, after the 50-year-old Hollinghurst landed the Booker at his second attempt.
A delighted Hollinghurst said he was "exhilarated" by his win, adding: "I hardly know where I am. My whole psychological technique for dealing with this evening was to convince myself I wasn't going to win it." Of the judges' choice, he said: "I know it's a decision I shall be grateful for the rest of my life. How they reached it, I've no idea and I'm conscious how easily it could have gone to one of the other authors."
Organisers confirmed it was the first time in the 36-year history of the Booker that a gay novel had won the prize.
The novel tells the tale of young Nick Guest, an Oxford University graduate living in the London house of a high-flying Conservative parliamentarian at the height of Margaret Thatcher's power.
In the boom years of the 1980s, Guest has a passionate affair with a black council worker before falling in love with a cocaine-addicted millionaire. In the book's most memorable scene, the hero dances with Thatcher at a party while he is drugged up the eyeballs.
The £50,000 sterling prize bestows instant literary fame on the winner, who can look forward to hitting bestseller lists around the world.
Fellow British writer David Mitchell had been the hottest favourite in the history of the Booker to land the coveted prize for his complex time machine novel Cloud Atlas. But the judges decided after more than two hours of heated debate to go instead for Hollinghurst, who had been consistently quoted by bookmakers as second favourite.
The Booker rewards the best novel of the last 12 months by a British, Irish or Commonwealth writer. Won over the years by such renowned authors as Salman Rushdie and Nobel literature prizewinner J.M. Coetzee, it can lead to lucrative film and television contracts as well as instant literary stardom.
Irish writer Colm Toibin was shortlisted for The Master, a novel about writer Henry James, while South African Achmat Dangor was picked for Bitter Fruit.
The shortlist was completed by British writers Sarah Hall for The Electric Michelangeloand Gerard Woodward for I'll Go to Bed at Noon.