Judges tore up the rule book on Monday, awarding the prestigious Booker Prize for Fiction jointly to Canadian author Margaret Atwood for "The Testaments" and Anglo-Nigerian author Bernardine Evaristo for "Girl, Woman, Other".

Atwood becomes only the second female author to win the award twice, sharing the $62,800&nbsp;prize at the 50th-anniversary ceremony at London's Guildhall.

The award has been shared twice before, in 1974 and 1997, when the rules were changed to supposedly prevent it from happening again.

The 79-year-old Atwood, who wore a badge of climate activist group Extinction Rebellion, held aloft the arm of her fellow winner as they walked to the podium together.

"I'm very surprised, I would have thought I would have been too elderly," said Atwood, who was honoured for her best-selling sequel to her 1985 dystopian classic "The Handmaid's Tale".&nbsp;

"I don't need the attention, so I'm very glad that you're getting some," she said to Evaristo, joking that as "a good Canadian, we don't do famous, we think it is in bad taste, so it would have been embarrassing if I'd been alone here".&nbsp;

Evaristo responded that it was "so incredible to share this with Margaret Atwood, who is such a legend.&nbsp;

"I am the first black woman to win this prize," she added, to cheers from the audience.

She late told reporters she was "happy to share it, I'm a sharing person," adding the prize money would go on paying off her mortgage.

'Resilience and resistance'

The title of best work of English-language fiction published in the United Kingdom and Ireland has launched careers and courted controversy since its creation in 1969.

Past laureates have ranged from celebrated writers such as Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes to Kazuo Ishiguro and Roddy Doyle.

Paul Beatty became the first American winner when the Booker bowed to pressure and began including authors from outside the British commonwealth, Ireland and Zimbabwe in 2013.

This year's shortlist featured six novelists -- four of them women -- born across four continents.&nbsp;

The five-judge panel included the writer-broadcaster Afua Hirsch and the British-Chinese novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo.

Of Atwood's novel, chair of judges Peter Florence said the panel "loves this examination of complicity and resilience and resistance, we love the language and the story-telling power, we love the ambition."

'Polyphony'

Nominated for the 1986 prize, "The Handmaid's Tale" became an award-winning TV series in 2017, and sales of the English-language edition have topped eight million copies worldwide.

Evaristo's "Girl, Woman, Other" tells the tale of 12 women from black British families with roots across the country, Africa and the Caribbean in what judge Florence called a "polyphony".

He praised it for "giving voice to people who are not always articulated, of making the invisible visible."

Explaining the decision to break the rules, Florence said the "situation demanded" it.

"We explained this to the Booker people, they said they wouldn't allow it," he added.&nbsp;

"We spent an hour discussing it... we then took another half an hour, and still came to the conclusion that... this was our decision.

"They agreed to respect our decision."

Rushdie, who won the Booker Prize in 1981 for "Midnight's Children", missed out on a second award with his latest work "Quichotte".

The tragicomedy, inspired by the classic "Don Quixote", is the story of an ageing travelling salesman who falls in love with a TV star and sets off to drive across America on a quest to prove himself worthy of her hand.

Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma made the shortlist for "An Orchestra of Minorities" -- his second novel after "The Fishermen", which was shortlisted in 2015.

Lucy Ellmann challenged judges with "Ducks, Newburyport" -- a story made up almost entirely of one sentence that absorbs readers and is occasionally funny.

Elif Shafak, the most widely read female author in Turkey, meanwhile brought Istanbul's underworld to life through the recollections of sex worker Tequila Leila in "10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World".

Judges tore up the rule book on Monday, awarding the prestigious Booker Prize for Fiction jointly to Canadian author Margaret Atwood for "The Testaments" and Anglo-Nigerian author Bernardine Evaristo for "Girl, Woman, Other".

Judges tore up the rule book on Monday, awarding the prestigious Booker Prize for Fiction jointly to Canadian author Margaret Atwood for "The Testaments" and Anglo-Nigerian author Bernardine Evaristo for "Girl, Woman, Other". Atwood becomes only the second female author to win the award twice, sharing the $62,800 prize at the 50th-anniversary ceremony at London's Guildhall. The award has been shared twice before, in 1974 and 1997, when the rules were changed to supposedly prevent it from happening again. The 79-year-old Atwood, who wore a badge of climate activist group Extinction Rebellion, held aloft the arm of her fellow winner as they walked to the podium together. "I'm very surprised, I would have thought I would have been too elderly," said Atwood, who was honoured for her best-selling sequel to her 1985 dystopian classic "The Handmaid's Tale". "I don't need the attention, so I'm very glad that you're getting some," she said to Evaristo, joking that as "a good Canadian, we don't do famous, we think it is in bad taste, so it would have been embarrassing if I'd been alone here". Evaristo responded that it was "so incredible to share this with Margaret Atwood, who is such a legend. "I am the first black woman to win this prize," she added, to cheers from the audience. She late told reporters she was "happy to share it, I'm a sharing person," adding the prize money would go on paying off her mortgage. 'Resilience and resistance' The title of best work of English-language fiction published in the United Kingdom and Ireland has launched careers and courted controversy since its creation in 1969. Past laureates have ranged from celebrated writers such as Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes to Kazuo Ishiguro and Roddy Doyle. Paul Beatty became the first American winner when the Booker bowed to pressure and began including authors from outside the British commonwealth, Ireland and Zimbabwe in 2013. This year's shortlist featured six novelists -- four of them women -- born across four continents. The five-judge panel included the writer-broadcaster Afua Hirsch and the British-Chinese novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo. Of Atwood's novel, chair of judges Peter Florence said the panel "loves this examination of complicity and resilience and resistance, we love the language and the story-telling power, we love the ambition." 'Polyphony' Nominated for the 1986 prize, "The Handmaid's Tale" became an award-winning TV series in 2017, and sales of the English-language edition have topped eight million copies worldwide. Evaristo's "Girl, Woman, Other" tells the tale of 12 women from black British families with roots across the country, Africa and the Caribbean in what judge Florence called a "polyphony". He praised it for "giving voice to people who are not always articulated, of making the invisible visible." Explaining the decision to break the rules, Florence said the "situation demanded" it. "We explained this to the Booker people, they said they wouldn't allow it," he added. "We spent an hour discussing it... we then took another half an hour, and still came to the conclusion that... this was our decision. "They agreed to respect our decision." Rushdie, who won the Booker Prize in 1981 for "Midnight's Children", missed out on a second award with his latest work "Quichotte". The tragicomedy, inspired by the classic "Don Quixote", is the story of an ageing travelling salesman who falls in love with a TV star and sets off to drive across America on a quest to prove himself worthy of her hand. Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma made the shortlist for "An Orchestra of Minorities" -- his second novel after "The Fishermen", which was shortlisted in 2015. Lucy Ellmann challenged judges with "Ducks, Newburyport" -- a story made up almost entirely of one sentence that absorbs readers and is occasionally funny. Elif Shafak, the most widely read female author in Turkey, meanwhile brought Istanbul's underworld to life through the recollections of sex worker Tequila Leila in "10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World".

Margaret Atwood, Bernardine Evaristo declared joint Booker Prize winners

As renowned Canadian author, Margaret Atwood went on the stage to receive her second Booker Prize, most were not surprised by her win. The legendary writer has for decades captured the imagination of readers worldwide with her distinct voice and writing. Her work has always been ahead of its time, which makes Atwood in a league of her own.&nbsp; 
 
Atwood becomes only the second female author to win the award twice, sharing the $62,800 prize at the 50th-anniversary ceremony at London's Guildhall. 
 
As she went up on stage to pick up her award with fellow winner Bernardine Evaristo, the popular author said, "I'm very surprised, I would have thought I would have been too elderly."&nbsp; 
 
She may be 79 now, but Atwood's work remains relevant even now. Here's a look at five of her best works.&nbsp; 
 
'A Handmaid's Tale' (1985) 
 
Atwood's most famous novel, revived more than three decades after its release with an award-winning television series, takes place in the chilling dystopia of Gilead, a patriarchal state in which women have no rights. 
 
By turns witty and horrifying, the story follows a handmaid called Offred, one Gilead's few remaining fertile women who are forced into sexual servitude in a desperate attempt to repopulate the climate-ravaged world. 
 
Atwood said she drew on real world events for her disturbing tale. "It’s not me who made this stuff up. The human race made it up, unfortunately," she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019. 
 
The story in particular struck a chord with the #MeToo movement and groups opposed to US President Donald Trump, protesters adorning the austere hooded outfits imposed on the handmaids as symbols of female subordination. 
 
'Alias Grace' (1996)&nbsp; 
 
This tome of historical fiction tells the story of real-life Grace Marks, an Irish-Canadian maid who was imprisoned for a brutal double murder in 1843. 
 
It evokes all the murky ambiguity surrounding the case in which Marks was pardoned after serving nearly three decades of a life sentence for the killing of her employer and his pregnant housekeeper. 
 
"Arguably, the book's great strength lies in its elegant and evocative descriptions of the domestic activities that once commanded the full attention of women from the less privileged classes," a 1996 review in The New York Times said. 
 
In 2017 it was adapted into a Netflix mini-series with a screenplay by Canadian Oscar-nominated director Sarah Polley.&nbsp; 
 
'The Blind Assassin' (2000)&nbsp; 
 
This novel, for which Atwood won Britain's prestigious Booker Prize, mixes gothic horror, sci-fi and suspense while tracing generations of a family haunted by a mysterious death of one of its members in 1945. 
 
Telling the story from the perspective of novelist Iris, sister of the woman who dies, Atwood adds an extra layer of intrigue by creating a novel-within-a-novel. 
 
"Far reaching, dramatic and structurally superb, it demonstrates Atwood's immense emotional range, as well as her poet's eye for both telling detail and psychological truth," said Booker chairman Simon Jenkins. 
 
'MaddAddam' (2013)&nbsp; 
 
Showcasing Atwood's penchant for dystopias and her gift as a writer of science-fiction, or "speculative fiction" as she preferred to call it, this novel is the last of a trio set in a bioengineered future. 
 
Starting in 2003 with "Oryx and Crake" and followed in 2009 by 'The Year of the Flood', the trilogy offers a philosophical and imaginative look at the consequences of scientific experimentation gone wrong. 
 
Part of "Atwood's mastery is to use herself as a creative computer, modelling possible futures projected from the available data — in human terms, where we are now," British author Jeanette Winterson wrote in a review in 2009. 
 
'The Testaments' (2019)&nbsp;

Atwood's highly anticipated sequel to 'The Handmaid's Tale'&nbsp;was inspired by readers' questions about the original novel as well as social and political developments since. 
 
The build-up around its release was "more reminiscent of the unveiling of an iPhone or something Pokemon-related than that of a mere book," The Guardian newspaper wrote. 
&nbsp; 
It is set more than 15 years after the events in 'The Handmaid's Tale', with the state of Gilead still in place but showing signs of decline, and follows the lives of three women who all appeared in the 1985 original. The book was nominated for the Booker Prize before it even hit the shelves.

(With inputs from AFP)

As renowned Canadian author, Margaret Atwood went on the stage to receive her second Booker Prize, most were not surprised by her win. The legendary writer has for decades captured the imagination of readers worldwide with her distinct voice and writing.

As renowned Canadian author, Margaret Atwood went on the stage to receive her second Booker Prize, most were not surprised by her win. The legendary writer has for decades captured the imagination of readers worldwide with her distinct voice and writing. Her work has always been ahead of its time, which makes Atwood in a league of her own. Atwood becomes only the second female author to win the award twice, sharing the $62,800 prize at the 50th-anniversary ceremony at London's Guildhall. As she went up on stage to pick up her award with fellow winner Bernardine Evaristo, the popular author said, "I'm very surprised, I would have thought I would have been too elderly." She may be 79 now, but Atwood's work remains relevant even now. Here's a look at five of her best works. 'A Handmaid's Tale' (1985) Atwood's most famous novel, revived more than three decades after its release with an award-winning television series, takes place in the chilling dystopia of Gilead, a patriarchal state in which women have no rights. By turns witty and horrifying, the story follows a handmaid called Offred, one Gilead's few remaining fertile women who are forced into sexual servitude in a desperate attempt to repopulate the climate-ravaged world. Atwood said she drew on real world events for her disturbing tale. "It’s not me who made this stuff up. The human race made it up, unfortunately," she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019. The story in particular struck a chord with the #MeToo movement and groups opposed to US President Donald Trump, protesters adorning the austere hooded outfits imposed on the handmaids as symbols of female subordination. 'Alias Grace' (1996) This tome of historical fiction tells the story of real-life Grace Marks, an Irish-Canadian maid who was imprisoned for a brutal double murder in 1843. It evokes all the murky ambiguity surrounding the case in which Marks was pardoned after serving nearly three decades of a life sentence for the killing of her employer and his pregnant housekeeper. "Arguably, the book's great strength lies in its elegant and evocative descriptions of the domestic activities that once commanded the full attention of women from the less privileged classes," a 1996 review in The New York Times said. In 2017 it was adapted into a Netflix mini-series with a screenplay by Canadian Oscar-nominated director Sarah Polley. 'The Blind Assassin' (2000) This novel, for which Atwood won Britain's prestigious Booker Prize, mixes gothic horror, sci-fi and suspense while tracing generations of a family haunted by a mysterious death of one of its members in 1945. Telling the story from the perspective of novelist Iris, sister of the woman who dies, Atwood adds an extra layer of intrigue by creating a novel-within-a-novel. "Far reaching, dramatic and structurally superb, it demonstrates Atwood's immense emotional range, as well as her poet's eye for both telling detail and psychological truth," said Booker chairman Simon Jenkins. 'MaddAddam' (2013) Showcasing Atwood's penchant for dystopias and her gift as a writer of science-fiction, or "speculative fiction" as she preferred to call it, this novel is the last of a trio set in a bioengineered future. Starting in 2003 with "Oryx and Crake" and followed in 2009 by 'The Year of the Flood', the trilogy offers a philosophical and imaginative look at the consequences of scientific experimentation gone wrong. Part of "Atwood's mastery is to use herself as a creative computer, modelling possible futures projected from the available data — in human terms, where we are now," British author Jeanette Winterson wrote in a review in 2009. 'The Testaments' (2019) Atwood's highly anticipated sequel to 'The Handmaid's Tale' was inspired by readers' questions about the original novel as well as social and political developments since. The build-up around its release was "more reminiscent of the unveiling of an iPhone or something Pokemon-related than that of a mere book," The Guardian newspaper wrote. It is set more than 15 years after the events in 'The Handmaid's Tale', with the state of Gilead still in place but showing signs of decline, and follows the lives of three women who all appeared in the 1985 original. The book was nominated for the Booker Prize before it even hit the shelves. (With inputs from AFP)

Margaret Atwood wins her second Booker Prize; 5 novels by the author that you must read

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Margaret Atwood, Bernardine Evaristo declared joint Booker Prize winners

Margaret Atwood wins her second Booker Prize; 5 novels by the author that you must read