Man Booker Prize 2013: Youngest star Eleanor Catton joins Booker luminaries Catton joked her work had been a "publishers nightmare" for logistical reasons, saying she had been compelled to buy a new handbag just to fit it in. Speaking after the result was announced, she said her publishers had been thrilled that the final manuscript was just short enough "not to collapse under its own weight in paperback." Booker Prize winner Eleanor Catton, second left, at a photocall in London last weekend with fellow shortlisted authors, from left, Jhumpa Lahiri, Colm Tóibín, NoViolet Bulawayo and Ruth Ozeki The Luminaries, set in the gold rush of Victorian New Zealand with a focus on money, wealth and values, was also the longest novel on the short list, although judges emphasised it was important to look "not at length but quality - and we have got quality." The Telegraph awarded the book five stars in a review on its release in August, calling it an "irresistible" second novel. A spokesman for Waterstones said that the announcement was "great news for readers," and that Catton's "hugely enjoyable and compelling affair" was potentially the biggest seller on the shortlist. Previous winners, including Life of Pi by Yann Martel, which sold two million copies, Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark and Mantel's two books, received a significant sales boost thanks to the award. The decision will be celebrated in Catton's home country of New Zealand, with the author claiming: "Everybody feels the success is partly theirs." She is the second winner from the country, after Keri Hulme in 1985. Catton is unlikely to be fazed by the accolade of being the prize's youngest winner, saying previously that the question of age was "slightly infuriating" in a professional sense. Speaking at the ceremony, she said: "I feel very honoured and proud to be living in a world where the facts of somebody's biography doesn't affect how people read the book. I think that's true of age and also ethnicity and all sorts of features of being human. When people can look beyond that and consider the work in itself, its always a good thing, so I think we're lucky in that way. Catton thanked her partner, Steven Toussaint but said her family in New Zealand did not have a television and had not yet had a chance to speak to her about the result. She added she had accepted the prize with "trembling knees" and a "dry mouth," and had not decided how to spend her £50,000 prize money The Duchess of Cornwall, who presented the award, told the assembled audience she had been "longing to know the victor" as a "common reader," because it "either gives us the chance to discover a new writer, or an opportunity to celebrate the work of someone more established." Author Ben Okri has now sent his congratulations to Catton for breaking his record as the youngest winning writer, telling the Telegraph: "I think its lovely. Records are there to be broken. Give it 15 years and a 26-year-old will win it.