Hilary Mantel won the 2012 Man Booker Prize for her novel "Bring Up the Bodies," making her the first woman and Briton to win twice.
The author won the award in 2009 for "Wolf Hall" — the first installment in her trilogy on King Henry VIII. "Bring Up the Bodies" is the second entry in the series.
Mantel receives £50,000 (or about $80,560), along with the £2,500 ($4,028) already awarded to all six shortlisted writers.
The prize, now in its 43rd year, is awarded each year to one English-language writer from the British Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland or Zimbabwe for the best full-length novel of the year.
Two men had previously "done the double," South Africa's J.M. Coetzee and Australia-born Peter Carey.
Peter Stothard, the chairman of the judge's panel, described Mantel as the "greatest modern English prose writer."
He also said "Bring Up the Bodies" was better than "Wolf Hall," calling it "tighter."
"Bring Up the Bodies," published by HarperCollins imprint Fourth Estate follows the infamously polygamous king as he's falling in love with noblewoman Jane Seymour after his wife, Anne Boleyn, fails to give birth to a male heir and rumors spread that she is being unfaithful.
