Tuesday, October 11 2005 20:32 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Veteran Irish novelist John Banville brought about one of the biggest literary coup when he took the 50,000 pounds Man Booker Prize for fiction from under the noses of the bookies and the pundits.

A 7-1 outsider in the betting odds and hardly tipped by any critic, his novel 'The Sea' was declared the winner over a range of outstanding rivals in a contest that the Chief Judge, John Sutherland, said had been 'painful' in its closeness.

The 59-year-old Banville triumphed when Professor Sutherland cast the Chairman's vote in his favour at an awards ceremony in Guildhall in London last night, attended by 550 guests. Until then, the judges were tied, with two backing Banville and two, supporting the runner-up, Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go.'

The bookies' and literary insiders' other leading favourites, Julian Barnes and Zadie Smith fell at an earlier stage of the hour-long meeting.

The judges described his book as 'a masterly study of grief, memory and love recollected.'

After winning the Britain's prestigious prize Banville said, "This is a great surprise and a great pleasure. I must thank the judges, who are suddenly my best friends in the world. And to my friends it's a cliche, but it's true: any one of these books could have won."

Dedicating the award to his children, he said, "I do say to my colleagues; just hang in there, it will come. I hung around for many years."