A book chronicling the famine that killed some 45-million Chinese people under the rule of Chairman Mao has been awarded the BBC Samuel Johnson Award for Non-Fiction, one of Britain's most prestigious literary prizes.

"Mao's Great Famine" by Frank Dikotter details the effects of the Great Leap Forward -- Chairman Mao's rush to turn China into an industrial superpower. Accepting the prize, Mr Dikkoter said the victims of the famine were often ignored in China today.