Writers pick up top prizes

Acclaimed novelist AS Byatt and leading literary critic John Carey have joined the ranks of giants such as DH Lawrence, Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene in winning The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes, Britain's oldest literary awards.

Man Booker prize winner AS Byatt is the recipient of the fiction prize for her much-praised novel The Children's Book.

One of Britain's foremost literary experts, Carey is the recipient of the biography prize for William Golding: The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies.

The winners were announced at the Edinburgh Book Festival.