Graham Joyce, a senior lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, has won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel for the fourth time.
Mr Joyce, who has taught creative writing at the university for the past four years, won the award for his novel Indigo, which was selected over books from top authors including Stephen King, Terry Pratchett and J. K. Rowling.
The annual British Fantasy Awards attract entries from authors worldwide and Graham's novels Dark Sister (1992), Requiem (1994) and The Tooth Fairy (1996) are previous winners. He has written nine best-sellers, including a children's novel Spiderbite (1997).