Julian Barnes has won the Booker Prize. Photo / AP
British writer Julian Barnes has won the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction for his novel The Sense of an Ending.
Judges announced the winner of the £50,000 (NZ$100,000) prize at a ceremony in London.
Barnes, who has been a finalist three times before but has never won, beat British writers Stephen Kelman and Carol Birch and Canadians Esi Edugyan and Patrick deWitt.
Barnes' memory-haunted novel about a man forced to face up to his past by the arrival of a letter was the strong favourite to win the prize, attracting half of all bets laid through bookmaker William Hill.
The 65-year-old writer, who once called the Booker Prize "posh bingo," was previously nominated for Flaubert's Parrot, England, England and Arthur and George.
Barnes said he was "as much relieved as I am delighted" to finally take the prize.
The award is open to writers from Britain, Ireland and the 54-nation Commonwealth of former British colonies.
- AP
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