Annie Ernaux: French writer wins Nobel Prize in Literature

French writer Annie Ernaux has won the Nobel Prize in Literature, for "the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots and collective restraints of personal memory".

The prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy and is worth 10 million Swedish kronor (£807,000).

Last year's was won by Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah.

The Nobel Prizes, awarded since 1901, recognise achievement in literature, science, peace and latterly economics.

Past literary winners have included novelists such as Ernest Hemingway, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Toni Morrison, poets such as Louise Gluck, Pablo Neruda, Joseph Brodsky and Rabindranath Tagore, and playwrights including Harold Pinter and Eugene O'Neill.