FROM medieval jousting to a bone- crunching game of American football – Cork lived up to its reputation as Ireland’s festival capital this weekend.

Wolf Hall author Hilary Mantel has won the inaugural £25,000 (€30,000) Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction.

Bookies’ favourite Hilary Mantel scooped the Man Booker Prize for Fiction tonight for her “demanding” novel about Henry VIII’s adviser Thomas Cromwell.

A HISTORICAL novel about Henry VIII’s adviser, Thomas Cromwell, leads the shortlist for this year’s Man Booker Prize.

Irish authors have missed out on a place in the shortlist for this year's Man Booker Prize.