Richard Holloway, the Scottish writer and broadcaster and former Bishop of Edinburgh in the Scottish Episcopal Church, has won a literary prize for his memoir.

The PEN/Ackerley Prize has been awarded to Mr Holloway for Leaving Alexandria: A Memoir of Faith and Doubt, published by Canongate.

It is Britain's only literary prize dedicated to memoir and autobiography, established in memory of JR Ackerley, the author and literary editor.

Peter Parker, chair of the judges said: "JR Ackerley was never in the least drawn to Christianity, but I believe he would have admired Richard Holloway's Memoir of Faith and Doubt for its searching self-analysis, its admissions of fallibility... and the very high quality of its prose."

The shortlist included Will Cohu's The Wolf Pit, Rachel Cusk's Aftermath, and Colin Grant's Bageye at the Wheel.