The winner for this year’s Prince of Asturias Award for literature has gone to Irish novelist John Banville.

The announcement was made from the northern Spanish city of Oviedo on Wednesday.

Banville is considered by critics as a master stylist of English.

Asturias Jury President José Manuel Blecua Perdices said:
‘‘John Banville’s prose opens us up to dazzling lyrical spaces through cultural references where classic myths are revitalised and beauty accompanies irony.’‘

Born in Wexford in 1945, Banville’s works include three trilogies, the first, ‘The Revolutions Trilogy’, focused on great men of science and consisted of ‘Dr Copernicus’, ‘Kepler’ and ‘The Newton Letter’.
The second consists of ‘The Book of Evidence’, ‘Ghosts’ and ‘Athena’.

Banville is also well known for his crime novels which are written under the pseudonym of Benjamin Black.

Known for his dark humour and sharp wit, in 2005 Banville won a Booker prize for his novel ‘The Sea’.

Recent winners of the Prince of Asturias Award literature also include Doris Lessing, Arthur Miller, Leonard Cohen and Philip Roth.

Regarded by many as second only to the Nobels in terms of prestige, the awards are now in their 34th year and aim to recognise achievements in several fields, including Sport and Scientific research.