London ( CNN ) -- British author Hilary Mantel has become the first woman to win the Man Booker Prize twice . Mantel , 60 , won the prestigious Â£50,000 ( $ 81,000 ) literary prize Tuesday for her novel `` Bring up the Bodies , '' the second in a historical trilogy set during the reign of King Henry VIII . She also won the prize in 2009 for `` Wolf Hall , '' the first novel in the trilogy . `` You wait 20 years for a Booker Prize and then two come along at once , '' she told reporters , adding , `` I feel a bit weak at the knees to be honest . '' `` This double accolade is uniquely deserved , '' said Sir Peter Stothard , chairman of the judging panel and editor of the Times Literary Supplement . `` In 'Bring up the Bodies , ' our greatest modern writer retells the origins of modern England . '' Mantel is the third author to win the prize twice , alongside South-African-born J.M . Coetzee and Australian Peter Carey . This year , she overcome competition from 144 other entries , including the shortlisted , `` Umbrella '' by Will Self ; `` Narcopolis '' by Jeet Thayil ; `` Swimming Home '' by Deborah Levy ; `` The Lighthouse '' by Alison Moore ; and `` The Garden of Evening Mists '' by Tan Twan Eng . Also on Leading Women : Nobel Peace Prize winner rips fellow laureate over corruption . A former social worker who lived in Botswana and Saudi Arabia before returning to the U.K. , she did not have her first novel published until she was in her mid-30s . She said the idea for her trilogy about Thomas Cromwell , Henry VIII 's chief minister , first came to her when she was in her 20s , but she was not in a position to write it for more than three decades . Established in 1969 , the Man Booker is the best-known fiction prize for English-language authors from Commonwealth countries and Ireland . It is intended to reward literary heavyweights rather than bestsellers . While sales are not a factor in the judges ' decision , authors typically experience a dramatic increase in sales after receiving the prize . Weekly sales in the U.K. of last year 's winner , `` Sense of an Ending '' by Julian Barnes , jumped from 2,535 to 14,534 -- an increase of 473 % -- in the week it won , according to Nielsen Bookscan . In the week she won the prize in 2009 , Mantel enjoyed a 463 % rise in weekly sales and more than 600,000 in total sales in the U.K. She joked then that she would spend the prize money on `` sex , drugs and rock and roll . '' This time around , she said she would probably spend it on her pension , although she said she still has writing years left in her , despite suffering `` misadventure '' since her first win and illness that stopped her from writing for most of 2010 . `` Bring up the Bodies '' and `` Wolf Hall '' are being adapted into a six-part series for the BBC and stage plays . Mantel said she had turned down offers for movie adapations because she felt the plot was too complex and better suited to a television series . She is also at work on the third novel in her trilogy , which she plans to call , `` The Mirror and the Light . '' `` When I start writing again , I will forget all this ( the award ceremony ) because every day has its own problems and every day you feel like a beginner . '' Also on Leading Women : To my 15-year-old self .
Hilary Wolf is first woman and first British writer to win Man Booker Prize twice . Her first book ` ` Bring up the Bodies '' is sequel to the winner ` ` ' . '' $ 81,000 prize is best - selling English - language literary prize outside United States .