Oxford author Philip Pullman has become the first children's writer to win the Whitbread Book Of The Year title and receives £30,000.

His fantasy novel The Amber Spyglass was last night judged the "overwhelming" winner by judges who had been wary of giving it to an author associated with children's fiction.

Mr Pullman, 55, who writes in a shed in his north Oxford garden, was stunned by his first win for the children's book, and told guests at the prize ceremony in central London that he had not expected to win.

Mr Pullman is an English literature graduate of Exeter College, Oxford, and a former lecturer at the city's Westminster College.

He said: "Thank you very much indeed to the judges for bringing the children's book back into the general competition. I'm absolutely thrilled to win this award because it shows what I have always believed -- that children's books belong with the rest in the general field, in the general market place for books and in the general conversation about books."

The chairman of the judges, Channel 4 newscaster and Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, Jon Snow, said the book -- the third in the magical His Dark Materials trilogy -- was "in a league of its own" and "head and shoulders" above its rivals.

Mr Pullman receives £5,000 for being named Whitbread Children's Book of the Year and a further £25,000 for the overall prize.

He previously won the Carnegie Medal and a Guardian award for his popular children's fiction.