Conn and Hal Iggulden's The Dangerous Book for Boys has been named book of the year at the Galaxy British Book Awards in London.
The book, published by Harper Collins, covers around eighty topics, from building a treehouse to learning how to make potassium aluminium sulphate crystals.
It was released in June 2006 and has gone on to sell more than 500,000 copies in the UK.
Books from Richard Dawkins, Sarah Waters and Irene Nemirovsky had also made the shortlist for the book of the year prize.
The awards ceremony, which airs on Friday on C4, was hosted by Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan.
Richard Dawkins beat off competition from Marina Lewycka, Kate Mosse and Jodi Picoult to be named author of the year.
Peter Kay's The Sound of Laughter was crowned biography of the year, while Ian Rankin’s The Naming of the Dead was named crime thriller of the year.
Footballer Steven Gerrard's autobiography triumphed in the sports category.
The TV and film book of the year award was given to Lauren Weisberger for The Devil Wears Prada, while Marian Keyes' Anybody Out There was judged best popular fiction.
Victoria Hislop's The Island landed the newcomer of the year accolade and Ricky Gervais' Flanimals of the Deep was named children's book of the year.
American author Jed Rubenfeld scooped the best read of the year gong for The Interpretation of Murder.
John Grisham received an award for outstanding achievement in recognition of his contribution to literacy.
The British Book Awards, dubbed "the Oscars of the book trade", are determined by a public vote.
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