Carcanet poet, the novelist Chinua Achebe received the second International Man Booker Prize on 28 June at Christ Church College, Oxford. £60,000 is awarded every two years to a living author who has contributed significantly to world literature. It was awarded to Ismail Kadaré in 2005. Achebe is best known for his first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), and Anthills of the Savannah, shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1987. He is regarded as the father of modern African literature. Achebe commented, 'It was 50 years ago this year that I began writing my first novel, Things Fall Apart. It is wonderful to hear that my peers have looked at the body of work I have put together in the last 50 years and judged it deserving of this important recognition.'