Ian McEwan wins Wodehouse Prize

This year's Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction has been awarded to Ian McEwan for Solar.

McEwan, whose works include Enduring Love, Atonement and Booker Prize-winning Amsterdam, will receive his prize - a jeroboam of champagne and a collection of P.G. Wodehouse books - at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival.

He will also meet a Gloucestershire Old Spot pig which will be renamed Solar in honour of his winning title.

David Campbell, judge and publisher of Everyman's Library, commented: 'It was an easy unanimous decision by the judges. This is a brilliantly funny book by a great writer.'

Now in its 11th year, the award aims to recognise the novel that best captures the comic brilliance of Wodehouse and is the UK's only prize for comic literature.

Winners in previous years include A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka and Christopher Brookmyre's All Fun and Games until Somebody Loses an Eye - resulting in some oddly-named pigs.

Last week, McEwan told the Daily Telegraph that Solar failed to impress critics in the US as the novel does not redeem its 'unattractive' central character.