Old literary prize winners announced

THE winners of Britain's oldest literary prizes have been announced at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Two writers have joined the ranks of literary giants such as DH Lawrence, EM Forster and Graham Greene by winning the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes.

Rosalind Belben won the fiction prize for her acclaimed novel, Our Horses in Egypt.

Rosemary Hill is the recipient of the biography prize for her first book, God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain.

The prizes, worth £10,000, are awarded annually by Edinburgh University for the best work of fiction and the best biography published during the previous year.

Rosemary Hill said: "I first heard of this award not as a writer but as a reader, where I found it set like a seal on everything I most admired in biography. I am thrilled and very honoured to have won it."