PETER KAY won the award for Biography of the Year at the Galaxy British Book Awards last night.

Kay beat Gordon Ramsay to the Biography of the Year award with his best-selling memoirs, The Sound of Laughter.

The book was the surprise hit of last year, selling a record-breaking 600,000 copies in its first two months of release. Sales are now approaching one million.

The Bolton comic had also been nominated in the Book of the Year category. But that went instead to The Dangerous Book For Boys by brothers Conn and Hal Iggulden, a children's "how to" guide extolling such old-fashioned pastimes as playing conkers and climbing trees.

Ricky Gervais, star of The Office and Extras, won the Children's Book of the Year prize for his cartoon creations Flanimals of the Deep.

The 18th annual awards - known as the "Nibbies" - were hosted by presenters Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan at London's Grosvenor House.

England star Steve Gerrard won Sports Book of the Year for Gerrard: My Autobiography.

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger was named TV and Film Book of the Year after it was turned into a Hollywood hit starring Meryl Streep.

The awards ceremony will be broadcast on Channel 4 tomorrow night at 8pm.