London: A tale of political intrigue set during the reign of King Henry VIII has won the prestigious Man Booker prize for fiction Tuesday.

Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall" has scooped the 50,000-pound ($80,000) prize. Mantel's novel charts the upheaval caused by the king's desire to marry Anne Boleyn, as seen through the eyes of royal adviser Thomas Cromwell.

Mantel's novel beat stiff competition from a shortlist that included previous Booker winners AS Byatt and J.M. Coetzee.

Fifty-seven-year-old Mantel is a former social worker and film critic who has written short stories, the memoir "Giving Up the Ghost" and novels including 2005's "Beyond Black," which was shortlisted for a Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction.

She spent five years writing Wolf Hall and is currently working on a sequel.