Sixth Walter Scott Prize winner announced at Borders Book Festival

English author John Spurling was presented with the sixth Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction during the Brewin Dolphin Borders Book Festival in Melrose.

The author won £25,000 for his novel The Ten Thousand Things, which is set in imperial China during the final years of the Mongol-ruled Yuan Dynasty,

It is the author's fourth novel and the book, which took him 15 years to write, was rejected forty-four times before being published by Duckworth last year.

The award ceremony in Melrose was presented by chair of judges Alistair Moffat.

Other judges on this year's panel were Kirsty Wark, Louise Richardson, Jonathan Tweedie, Elizabeth Laird and Elizabeth Buccleuch.

Previous winners of the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction include Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (2010).

It is one of the top five annual fiction prizes in the UK and is funded by the of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch.