Andrea Gillies' KEEPER has won this year's Orwell Prize for political writing

Andrea Gillies fought off stiff competition last night from titles including Petina Gappah's AN ELEGY FOR EASTERLY and Christopher De Bellaigue's REBEL LAND to claim the £3,000 prize money and plaque for the 2010 Orwell Prize. 212 books were originally entered, and 18 were longlisted.

The Orwell Prize is the pre-eminent British prize for political writing and previous winners include Raja Shehadeh and Peter Hennessy.

This year's judges were Jonathan Heawood (Director, English PEN), Andrew Holgate (Literary Editor, Sunday Times) and Francine Stock (writer and broadcaster). They described KEEPER as "rising beyond memoir...to deliver a radical exploration of identity and memory."

KEEPER also won the inaugural Wellcome Trust Book Prize in 2009.