Prime Minister Gordon Brown last night heaped praise on Harry Potter author JK Rowling as she received an outstanding achievement award at the Galaxy British Book Awards.

The competition included authors as diverse as Nobel Prize for Literature recipient Doris Lessing and Katie Price, aka Jordan.

Ian McEwan was given two awards - the Galaxy Book of the Year and the Readers Digest Author of the Year award for On Chesil Beach.

He beat Lessing who was shortlisted for the Readers Digest Author of the Year for her novel The Cleft.

Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman beat Jeremy Clarkson, Andrew Marr and Nigella Lawson to win the Play.com Popular Non-fiction Award for A Long Way Down.

US-based Afghan writer Khaled Hosseini appeared on three shortlists - the only author to do so.

He won Richard and Judy's Best Read of the Year for A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Mr Brown, in a video message, said he was privileged to present the award to someone he and his wife "are lucky enough to call a friend".

He continued: "She has joined a distinguished line of British authors whose work has got the whole country reading, and whose books will be read for many years to come. That alone is worthy of an award, because we all know reading is the gateway to learning and fulfilment."

Rowling told the audience: "I would like to thank my husband - the word rock' has been much debased of late so I will call him a brick."