NORTHERN IRISH AUTHOR Anna Burns has won the 2018 Man Booker Prize for her novel Milkman.

Burns is the first Northern Irish author to win the prestigious literary award.

Set during the Troubles, Burns’ third novel drew on her own experiences. Centred around an 18-year-old girl being pursued by a sinister member of a paramilitary organisation, the Booker Prize judges praised Milkman for its “surprising and immersive prose”.

Burns is the first woman to take home the £50,000 prize since 2013, when Eleanor Catton won it for her second novel, The Luminaries.

Receiving the prize tonight, a surprised Burns said she that she’d “like to acknowledge all the great writers who were on the short list and long list with me.

I’d love to say, to all my dear friends, thank you for all your support.

Born in Belfast and currently living in East Sussex, Burns is also the author of No Bones and Little Constructions.

Founded in 1969, the Man Booker Prize was originally open to British, Irish and Commonwealth writers.

Americans have been eligible since 2014, and there have been two American winners — Paul Beatty’s The Sellout in 2016 and George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo in 2017.

Previous Irish winners of the prize include John Banville, Anne Enright and Roddy Doyle.