McCarthy, Rogers score U.K.'s oldest lit prize

Reclusive author Cormac McCarthy scooped up another book prize this weekend, with his post-apocalyptic novel The Road winning Scotland's most prestigious and the U.K.'s oldest literary honour.

McCarthy won the annual James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction at a ceremony during the Edinburgh International Book Festival on Saturday.

The U.S. writer, who rarely appears in public to promote his work, has already been honoured with 2007's Pulitzer Prize for fiction for The Road, his 10th novel.

Welsh writer Byron Rogers scored the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography for his portrait of British poet R.S. Thomas.

Awarded since 1919, each prize is worth £10,000 (about $21,000 Cdn). English language books published inthe U.K. by writers of any nationality are eligible.

Though he hailed all the nominees as "prize-worthy," judge Colin Nicholson added that "for imaginative impact and page-turning readability, the two winning books are both destined to become classics in their respective genres."

Past winners of the fiction prize include D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster, GrahamGreene, Salman Rushdie, Paul Theroux, Zadie Smith, John Le Carre, Nadine Gordiner and Ian McEwan.

Past winners of the biography prize include Lytton Strachey, Antonia Fraser, Peter Ackroyd and Martin Amis.

McCarthy, who rarely talks to the press, surprised the literary world earlier this year when he agreed to allow The Road to become a reading selection for hit talk show host Oprah Winfrey's book club. Winfrey also conducted what was billed as the media-shy McCarthy's first-ever TV interview for her show.