AN Oxford artist who fled Sri Lanka at the age of ten has been shortlisted for one of Britain's main book awards.

Roma Tearne, of Jericho, this year published her first novel, Mosquito, based on her experiences during her homeland's civil war in the 1960s.

Now her book has been shortlisted for the £50,000 Costa Prize, formerly the Whitbread. The judges described it as "a compelling story set in war torn Sri Lanka - poignant, exquisitely told and a captivating view of unusual love and survival".

The 52-year-old will compete in the first novel category with two other immigrant authors, Bangladeshi-born Tahmima Anam and Indian-born Nikita Lalwani, and Catherine O'Flyn, from Birmingham.

Ms Tearne, who is now working on her third novel, said: "It's rather lovely to be shortlisted".

She is in the third year of an Oxford Brookes University visual arts fellowship and recently made a film which was shown at the Edinburgh Festival.

Her Singhalese mother and her Tamil father left Sri Lanka because they could not get work, as the Singhalese majority objected to 'mixed marriages'.

But as the civil war escalated the family witnessed atrocities such as a man being burned alive during riots.

Roma later became a successful painter, exhibiting at the Royal Academy and working as Leverhulme artist in residence at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

She has an MA from the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford, but has moved into films and installation work.

Other Oxfordshire writers in contention include John Fuller, in the poetry section, and Julie Kavanagh, named for her biography of Rudolf Nureyev.

Meg Rosoff, formerly of Water Eaton, is a contender in the children's category for What I Was.