Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo share Booker Prize

Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo have become the first authors to jointly win the Booker Prize.

The judges of this year’s Booker prize revealed they had to “explicitly flout” the rules of the literary award after they were unsuccessful in picking a single winner. 

Atwood's The Testaments and Evaristo's novel Girl, Woman, Other earned each author an equal share of the £50,000 prize.

At 79, Atwood becomes the prize’s oldest winner, while Evaristo is the first black woman to win the Booker.

Writers Lucy Ellmann, Chigozie Obioma, Salman Rushdie and Elif Shafak were among the six shortlisted for the prestigious awards.