An emerging author has described winning a major book award as a “dream come true”.

Ferdia Lennon, 36, won this year’s Waterstones debut fiction prize at an awards evening in London.

The former University of East Anglia student, who lives in Norwich, won £5,000 and the promise of ongoing support with his writing.

The book retailer described his novel Glorious Exploits as “pure page-turning joy”.

“Writing is very solitary but to be in a position where you can go to a Waterstones, or your local bookshop, and see your book there and people take it off the shelf is a dream come true,” Mr Lennon said.

“It’s incredible. You always hope that might happen.”

Glorious Exploits, set in Sicily in 412 BC, tells the story of two young men who discover a group of captured Athenian soldiers and use them to stage one of Euripides’ greatest tragedies.

Bea Carvalho, head of books at Waterstones, said: “Lennon brings the ancient world to life in technicolour, from the horrors of war to the moments of hilarity to be found in the mundane, with a charmingly eccentric cast of characters.

“It is a riotous, exuberant treat of a novel.”

The Waterstones debut fiction prize is voted for by the company’s booksellers.

Last year’s winner, In Memoriam, by Alice Winn, became the bestselling debut of 2023.

Mr Lennon, a married father of one, was born in Dublin to an Irish mother and Libyan father.

He studied history and classics at University College Dublin and graduated with an MA in prose fiction from the University of East Anglia.

Mr Lennon said he had already started writing his second novel.