Atwood tells of fears over 'dogma and censorship'

Margaret Atwood said yesterday she could not remember another point in her lifetime "when words themselves have felt under such threat".

- Lucy Knight

The 85-year-old novelist said words were "our earliest human technology, like water they appear insubstantial, but like water they can generate tremendous power".

In her acceptance speech for the freedom to publish prize at the British Book awards, she added: "Political and religious polarisation, which appeared to be on the wane for parts of the 20th century, has increased alarmingly in the past decade.

"The world feels to me more like the 1930s and 40s at present than it has in the intervening 80 years."

The British Book awards, colloquially known as the Nibbies, are a set of prizes for authors, illustrators and book industry professionals run by the publishing trade magazine, The Bookseller.

Other significant awards presented at the ceremony were author of the year, which went to Percival Everett for his novel James and overall book of the year, which went to Patriot by Alexei Navalny, accepted on his behalf by his widow Yulia Navalnaya.