British writer J G Farrell, who died in 1979, has won the Lost Man Booker Prize, a one-off award for books published in 1970 but not considered for the honour at the time.
The winning novel, Troubles, missed out first time around because rules about publication dates changed - and many works fell through the net.
Had Troubles actually won in 1970, the BBC reports, Farrell would have later become the first author to win the Booker twice, because he won in 1973 with The Siege of Krishnapur. He died in a fishing accident in 1979.
A shortlist of six novels for the "lost" prize was selected by a judging panel that included newsreader Katie Derham and writer Tobias Hill. Troubles, which is set in 1919 during the Irish war of independence, then won 38% of a public vote.
The literary director of the Man Booker Prizes, Ion Trewin, says: "Troubles is a novel of such lasting quality that it has never been out of print in the 40 years since it was first published."
