I want to shout with joy. My heart is full of gratitude Christopher Nolan

In an acceptance speech read by his mother, Mr Nolan said: "I want to shout with joy. My heart is full of gratitude."

He went on: "You all must realise that history is now in the making. Crippled man has taken his place on the world's literary stage."

His prize-winning book tells how he was deprived of oxygen at birth.

It left his brain damaged, meaning he was unable to talk, walk or use his hands - but his intellect was unharmed.

The book is not told in the first person, but uses the character of a young man called Joseph Mehan to present his own moving struggles with his disabilities.

Mrs Nolan said winning the book of the year prize would mean a great deal to her son: "Now he's being taken as a serious writer.

"He's up there with all of the established writers and now he's beaten them at their own game so that must give him a sense of respectability as a writer now."

Mr Nolan's writing has been likened to that of James Joyce.

His first book, a volume of poetry called A Dam-burst of Dreams, was published in 1980 when he was 14.

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