OXFORD professor Richard Dawkins has been named author of the year at the Galaxy British Book Awards, the UK's biggest celebration of publishing.
He picked up the Reader's Digest Author of the Year award for his controversial demolition of religion, The God Delusion.
Receiving his award on Wednesday night, Prof Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and scientist said: "It is immensely gratifying to me that The God Delusion seems to have struck a chord with so many people across the country who cast their votes in its favour."
Ian Rankin won Crime Thriller of the Year for The Naming of the Dead, while Conn and Hal Iggulden's The Dangerous Book for Boys won the Book of the Year award.
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