A poet based in Scotland has won one of the literary world's most prestigious awards, the TS Eliot prize.
Jacob Polley, for his collection Jackself, described as a "disturbing tale of lost innocence", claimed the award last night.
Judges Ruth Padel, who was the Chair, Julia Copus, and Alan Gillis said they chose the winner from a strong shortlist of six women and four men.
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Ms Padel said: "All three judges were agonised by choosing between such brilliant books.
"But the winning collection, Jacob Polley’s Jackself, is a firework of a book; inventive, exciting and outstanding in its imaginative range and depth of feeling."
Mr Polley, born in 1975 in Cumbria, is the author of four poetry collections, published by Picador. and is also a novelist.
He lives and works in St Andrews, where he teaches at the University.
He received an Eric Gregory Award in 2002, and previous poetry collections The Brink and The Havocs were shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize.
In 2004, he was named one of the ‘Next Generation’ of the twenty best new poets in Britain.
Mr Polley's first novel, Talk of the Town, won the 2010 Somerset Maugham Award.
Last night he was presented with a cheque for £20,000 and each shortlisted poet received a cheque for £1,500.
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The T S Eliot Foundation has taken over the running of the T S Eliot Prize following the closing of the Poetry Book Society, the charity which established the Prize in 1993 and ran it for 23 years.
It is the richest prize in British poetry, with the winning poet receiving a cheque for £20,000 and the shortlisted poets each receiving £1,500.
Last year’s winner was Sarah Howe for her collection Loop of Jade.
The T S Eliot Prize was inaugurated in 1993 to celebrate the Poetry Book Society's 40th birthday, and to honour its founding poet.
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Previous winners include Paul Muldoon, Don Paterson, twice, Ted Hughes, Carol Ann Duffy, Seamus Heaney, John Burnside, and David Harsent, among others.
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