Maeve Binchy has confirmed her position as Ireland's most popular literary export by carrying off the fiction prize in Britain's WH Smith book awards.
The former Irish Times columnist beat competition from Anita Shreve, Joanna Trollope, Armistead Maupin and Willy Russell. The WH Smith awards are unique in that they are decided by members of the public, 65,000 of whom voted in the poll.
Ms Binchy received the award for the novel Scarlet Feather in London on Thursday night. But her latest success has not changed her decision to retire from the novel form. Scarlet Feather is the 16th and, she insists, last in the series.
"It's absolutely lovely to win, but it's better to quit while I'm still ahead and they're still laughing. This prize is particularly nice because it was by readers' votes. I'm not a person who wins book awards. I'm a person who sells enormous numbers of books.
"And considering that writers have been getting panic attacks for years because of predictions that the book is dead, it's very cheering that 65,000 people bothered to vote in something like this."
In a survey of 40,000 readers last year, Ms Binchy was voted Britain's sixth-favourite author, behind the likes of Roald Dahl, JK Rowling and Catherine Cookson, but 44 places ahead of Shakespeare.
The WH Smith prize - "£5,000 and a big piece of glass" - was presented at a ceremony in the Hempel Hotel, where other winners included JK Rowling and Philip Roth. Rowling won the children's book prize for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Roth's The Human Stain won the "literary" award, the only WH Smith award decided by judges.
Losers on the night included Prince Charles. Nominated in the "Home and Leisure" category for The Garden at Highgrove, he suffered the indignity of defeat by celebrity cook Jamie Oliver and his Return of the Naked Chef. The prince did not attend the ceremony.
Scarlet Feather is the story of Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather, and their attempts to create "the best catering company in Dublin". It is described by its publishers as "a magical tale of love, heart-break and laughter set in the warm Irish atmosphere that has made her famous".
Despite her decision to quit novel-writing, the author has plenty of work in the pipeline.
