Jewish playwright Tom Stoppard has been awarded the PEN Pinter Prize, one of the literary world's most prestigious accolades.

The prize is given annually in memory of the Nobel-winning Jewish playwright Harold Pinter to an outstanding British writer.

It seeks to reward outstanding British writers who show, in the words of Pinter, "a fierce intellectual determination...to define the real truth of our lives and our societies."

Mr Stoppard will be presented with the prize at a public ceremony at the British Library in London in October.

He said: ''Harold was one of the reasons I wanted to write plays. Most of us had occasion to feel humbled by his example.’’

Gillian Slove, the president of English PEN and chair of judges, said: "The judges agreed unanimously that Tom's lifetime's work meets the challenging criteria set by Harold Pinter - those of courage and truthfulness, a determination to tell things as they are."