South African writer wins Nobel Prize

South African writer John Maxwell Coetzee won the 2003 Nobel Prize for literature today

The writer was a favourite for the prize that includes a cheque for more than €1m.

Winning can also bestow the added advantage of increased sales, celebrity and admiration.

The Nobel academy had given the award to Europeans for the last eight years.

Since 1980, only three winners have come from Africa, three from South America, two from the United States and one from Asia.

It’s been 14 years since someone from the Middle East was given the nod, Egyptian Naguib Mahfouz.

Some of Coetzee’s works include Dusklands and Disgrace, which won the 1999 Booker Prize, the second time he took home that award.