A YORK author has narrowly missed out on winning this year's Man Booker Prize.

Former Fulford School pupil Fiona Mozley, 29, made the shortlist for the prestigious award with her debut novel Elmet.

It was one of only six shortlisted works and the only British debut of these books.

However, the judges chose Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders as the winner of the prize.

He was presented with a trophy from the Duchess of Cornwall and a £50,000 cheque by Luke Ellis, Chief Executive of Man Group, at London's Guildhall.

Fiona said: "I had a wonderful time at Guildhall but it got significantly better after the announcement was made as I could relax and have a drink. Of course it would have been wonderful to win but at the same time I feel no real disappointment. It was good just to be included, and I have felt like a winner since the longlist was announced at the end of July.

"All of the other authors were very warm, and we all got on really well. George is a fabulous writer and a very generous man. I hope I will see him again in the future."

Elmet has been described as "a hugely potent story about aspects of hidden England,” that “builds to a terrifying climax” by the judges.

Set in the copses of Yorkshire, it follows a family that the judges said “are at the margins of ‘civilised’ English life."

The children, Daniel and Cathy, do not go to school, their father gets into fights, they stay far away from everyone else in the village, living in a house in the woods that the three of them built together.

They just want to be left in peace, but when trouble arrives on their doorstep in the form of the local landowner hell-bent on revenge, their idyllic life is irrevocably changed.