Hilary Mantel won the 41st annual Man Booker Prize on Tuesday night for Wolf Hall, a historical novel about Henry VIII’s court centered on the king’s adviser, Thomas Cromwell.

In the run-up to Tuesday’s ceremony at the Guildhall in London, Mantel, 57, was the overwhelming favorite, with the bookmakers William Hill giving “Wolf Hall” odds of 10-11, the shortest odds ever for a nominee.

Mantel beat out literary lions J. M. Coetzee and A. S. Byatt, both previous winners of the prize, and deprived Coetzee of the chance to become a three-time winner of the award. She was the first favorite to win since Yann Martel won for “Life of Pi” in 2002.

Accepting the award, Mantel said, “I had to interest the historians, I had to amuse the jaded palate of the critical establishment and most of all I had to capture the imagination of the general reader.”

James Naughtie, a BBC broadcaster who led the panel of judges, described Wolf Hall as “a thoroughly modern novel set in the 16th century”, praising it for the way it “probes the mysteries of power by examining and describing the meticulous dealings in Henry VIII’s court, revealing in thrilling prose how politics and history is made by men and women.”

Naughtie revealed that the decision was not unanimous and that the five-judge panel was split this year 3 to 2 in favour of Wolf Hall.

The Man Booker Prize, Britain’s most prestigious literary award, is conferred every year to a novel written by an author from Britain, Ireland or the Commonwealth nations. The award comes with a check for about $80,000 and usually results in a bump in sales.