Costa Book Awards
Costa Book Award (Whitbread Award) | |
---|---|
Awarded for | English-language books by writers based in Britain and Ireland |
Country | United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland |
Presented by | Costa Coffee |
First awarded | 1971 |
Website | costa |
The Costa Book Awards are a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in Britain and Ireland. They were inaugurated for 1971 publications and known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2006 when Costa Coffee, then a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship.[1][2] The companion Costa Short Story Award was established in 2012.[3]
The awards are given both for high literary merit but also for works that are enjoyable reading and whose aim is to convey the enjoyment of reading to the widest possible audience. As such, they are a more populist literary prize than the Booker Prize.
In 1989, there was controversy when the judges first awarded the Best Novel prize to Alexander Stuart's The War Zone, then withdrew the prize prior to the ceremony amid acrimony among the judges, ultimately awarding it to Lindsay Clarke's The Chymical Wedding.
Process[]
Authors need not be British or Irish but they must have been resident in the UK or Ireland for at least six months in each of the previous three years.[citation needed]
There are five book award categories. These have not been changed since the Poetry Award was introduced in 1985, although the children's category has been termed "children's novel" or "children's book of the year".[1][2] The categories are:
- Novel
- First novel
- Children's book
- Poetry
- Biography
The winning books are selected from shortlists by five distinct panels of judges.[citation needed] Each of the five winning writers receives £5,000. The prize requires a £5,000 fee from publishers if a book is to be shortlisted.[4] One of the winning books is then named Costa Book of the Year with a further £30,000 prize. That overall award is determined by a panel comprising five judges from the first round and four new ones.[citation needed]
Short stories[]
The short story award was established in 2012 with a prize of £3,500 for the first, £1,000 for the second and £500 for the third.[5] The winning story is determined by public vote from a shortlist of six that are selected by a panel of judges. The process is "blind" at both stages for the unpublished entries are anonymous until the conclusion.[3][6]
In the inaugural year, the six short story finalists had been published anonymously online by 28 November 2012 and the public vote was underway. The winner was to be announced 29 January 2013.[6]
Winners[]
Bold font and blue ribbon () distinguish the overall Costa Book of the Year.[1]
List of award winners[]
Year | Award | Notes & Refs | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Novel | First novel | Children's book | Poetry | Biography | Short story | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
1971 | Gerda Charles The Destiny Waltz |
— | — | Geoffrey Hill Mercian Hymns |
Michael Meyer Henrik Ibsen |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1972 | Susan Hill The Bird of Night |
— | Rumer Godden The Diddakoi |
— | James Pope-Hennessy Anthony Trollope |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1973 | Shiva Naipaul The Chip-Chip Gatherers |
— | Alan Aldridge and William Plomer The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast |
— | John Wilson CB: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1974 | Iris Murdoch The Sacred and Profane Love Machine |
Claire Tomalin The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft |
Russell Hoban and Quentin Blake How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen Jill Paton Walsh The Emperor's Winding Sheet |
— | Andrew Boyle Poor Dear Brendan |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1975 | William McIlvanney Docherty |
Ruth Spalding The Improbable Puritan: A Life of Bulstrode Whitelocke |
— | — | Helen Corke In Our Infancy |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1976 | William Trevor The Children of Dynmouth |
— | Penelope Lively A Stitch in Time |
— | Winifred Gerin Elizabeth Gaskell |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1977 | Beryl Bainbridge Injury Time |
— | No End to Yesterday |
— | Nigel Nicolson Mary Curzon |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1978 | Paul Theroux Picture Palace |
— | Philippa Pearce The Battle of Bubble & Squeak |
— | John Grigg Lloyd George: The People's Champion |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1979 | Jennifer Johnston The Old Jest |
— | Peter Dickinson Tulku |
— | Penelope Mortimer About Time |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1980 | David Lodge How Far Can You Go |
— | Leon Garfield John Diamond |
— | David Newsome On the Edge of Paradise: A. C. Benson, Diarist |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1981 | Maurice Leitch Silver's City |
William Boyd A Good Man in Africa |
Jane Gardam The Hollow Land |
— | Nigel Hamilton Monty: The Making of a General |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1982 | John Wain Young Shoulders |
Bruce Chatwin On the Black Hill |
W. J. Corbett The Song of Pentecost |
— | Edward Crankshaw Bismark |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1983 | William Trevor Fools of Fortune |
John Fuller Flying to Nowhere |
Roald Dahl The Witches |
— | Victoria Glendinning Vita Kenneth Rose King George V |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1984 | Christopher Hope Kruger's Alp |
James Buchan A Parish of Rich Women |
Barbara Willard The Queen of the Pharisees' Children |
— | Peter Ackroyd T. S. Eliot |
Tomorrow is our Permanent Address |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
1985 | Peter Ackroyd Hawksmoor |
Jeanette Winterson Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit |
Janni Howker The Nature of the Beast |
Douglas Dunn Elegies |
Ben Pimlott Hugh Dalton |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1986 | Kazuo Ishiguro An Artist of the Floating World |
Jim Crace Continent |
Andrew Taylor The Coal House |
Peter Reading Stet |
Richard Mabey Gilbert White |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1987 | Ian McEwan The Child in Time |
Francis Wyndham |
Geraldine McCaughrean A Little Lower than the Angels |
Seamus Heaney The Haw Lantern |
Christopher Nolan Under the Eye of the Clock |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1988 | Salman Rushdie The Satanic Verses |
Paul Sayer The Comforts of Madness |
Awaiting Developments |
Peter Porter The Automatic Oracle |
A. N. Wilson Tolstoy |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1989 | Lindsay Clarke The Chymical Wedding |
James Hamilton-Paterson Gerontius |
Hugh Scott Why Weeps the Brogan |
Michael Donaghy Shibboleth |
Richard Holmes Coleridge: Early Visions |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1990 | Nicholas Mosley Hopeful Monsters |
Hanif Kureishi The Buddha of Suburbia |
Peter Dickinson AK |
Paul Durcan Daddy, Daddy |
Ann Thwaite AA Milne – His Life |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1991 | Jane Gardam The Queen of the Tambourine |
Gordon Burn Alma Cogan |
Diana Hendry Harvey Angell |
Michael Longley Gorse Fires |
John Richardson A Life of Picasso |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1992 | Alasdair Gray Poor Things |
Jeff Torrington Swing Hammer Swing! |
Gillian Cross The Great Elephant Chase |
Tony Harrison The Gaze of the Gorgon |
Victoria Glendinning Trollope |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1993 | Joan Brady Theory of War |
Rachel Cusk Saving Agnes |
Anne Fine Flour Babies |
Carol Ann Duffy Mean Time |
Andrew Motion Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1994 | William Trevor Felicia's Journey |
Fred D'Aguiar The Longest Memory |
Geraldine McCaughrean Gold Dust |
James Fenton Out of Danger |
Brenda Maddox D H Lawrence: The Married Man |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1995 | Salman Rushdie The Moor's Last Sigh |
Kate Atkinson Behind the Scenes at the Museum |
Michael Morpurgo The Wreck of the Zanzibar |
Bernard O'Donoghue Gunpowder |
Roy Jenkins Gladstone |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1996 | Beryl Bainbridge Every Man for Himself |
John Lanchester The Debt to Pleasure |
Anne Fine The Tulip Touch |
Seamus Heaney The Spirit Level |
Diarmaid MacCulloch Thomas Cranmer: A Life |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1997 | Jim Crace Quarantine |
Pauline Melville The Ventriloquist's Tale |
Andrew Norriss Aquila |
Ted Hughes Tales from Ovid |
Graham Robb Victor Hugo |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
1998 | Justin Cartwright Leading the Cheers |
Giles Foden The Last King of Scotland |
David Almond Skellig |
Ted Hughes Birthday Letters |
Amanda Foreman Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire |
— | Posthumous Book of the Year Award | ||||||||||||||||||||||
1999 | Rose Tremain Music and Silence |
Tim Lott White City Blue |
J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban |
Seamus Heaney Beowulf: A New Verse Translation |
David Cairns Berlioz Volume Two: Servitude and Greatness |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2000 | Matthew Kneale English Passengers |
Zadie Smith White Teeth |
Jamila Gavin Coram Boy |
John Burnside The Asylum Dance |
Lorna Sage Bad Blood – A Memoir |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2001 | Patrick Neate Twelve Bar Blues |
Sid Smith Something Like A House |
Philip Pullman The Amber Spyglass |
Selima Hill Bunny |
Diana Souhami Selkirk's Island |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2002 | Michael Frayn Spies |
Norman Lebrecht The Song of Names |
Hilary McKay Saffy's Angel |
Paul Farley The Ice Age |
Claire Tomalin Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2003 | Mark Haddon The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time |
DBC Pierre Vernon God Little |
David Almond The Fire-Eaters |
Don Paterson Landing Light (poetry collection) |
DJ Taylor Orwell: The Life |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2004 | Andrea Levy Small Island |
Susan Fletcher Eve Green |
Geraldine McCaughrean Not the End of the World |
Michael Symmons Roberts Corpus |
John Guy My Heart Is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2005 | Ali Smith The Accidental |
Tash Aw The Harmony Silk Factory |
Kate Thompson The New Policeman |
Christopher Logue Cold Calls |
Hilary Spurling Matisse the Master |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2006 | William Boyd Restless |
Stef Penney The Tenderness of Wolves |
Linda Newbery Set in Stone |
Letter to Patience |
Keeping Mum |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2007 | A.L. Kennedy Day |
Catherine O'Flynn What Was Lost |
Ann Kelley The Bower Bird |
Jean Sprackland Tilt |
Simon Sebag Montefiore Young Stalin |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2008 | Sebastian Barry The Secret Scripture |
Sadie Jones The Outcast |
Michelle Magorian Just Henry |
Adam Foulds The Broken Word |
Diana Athill Somewhere Towards the End |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2009 | Colm Tóibin Brooklyn |
Raphael Selbourne Beauty |
Patrick Ness The Ask and the Answer |
Christopher Reid A Scattering |
Graham Farmelo The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2010 | Maggie O'Farrell The Hand That First Held Mine |
Kishwar Desai Witness the Night |
Jason Wallace Out of Shadows |
Jo Shapcott Of Mutability |
Edmund de Waal The Hare with Amber Eyes |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2011 | Andrew Miller Pure |
Christie Watson Tiny Sunbirds Far Away |
Moira Young Blood Red Road |
Carol Ann Duffy The Bees |
Matthew Hollis Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas |
— | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2012 | Hilary Mantel Bring up the Bodies |
Francesca Segal The Innocents |
Sally Gardner Maggot Moon |
Kathleen Jamie The Overhaul |
Mary Talbot and Bryan Talbot Dotter of Her Father's Eyes |
Avril Joy Millie and Bird |
[7] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
2013 | Kate Atkinson Life after Life |
Nathan Filer The Shock of the Fall |
Chris Riddell Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse |
Michael Symmons Roberts Drysalter |
Lucy Hughes-Hallett The Pike |
Angela Readman The Keeper of the Jackalopes |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
2014 | Ali Smith How to Be Both |
Emma Healey Elizabeth is Missing |
Kate Saunders Five Children on the Western Front |
Jonathan Edwards My Family and Other Superheroes |
Helen Macdonald H is for Hawk |
Fishskin, Hareskin |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
2015 | Kate Atkinson A God in Ruins |
Andrew Michael Hurley The Loney |
Frances Hardinge The Lie Tree |
Don Paterson 40 Sonnets |
Andrea Wulf The Invention of Nature |
Rogey |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
2016 | Sebastian Barry Days Without End |
Francis Spufford Golden Hill |
Brian Conaghan The Bombs That Brought Us Together |
Alice Oswald Falling Awake |
Dadland: A Journey into Uncharted Territory |
Dirty Little Fishes |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
2017 | Jon McGregor Reservoir 13 |
Gail Honeyman Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine |
Katherine Rundell The Explorer |
Helen Dunmore Inside the Wave |
Rebecca Stott In the Days of Rain |
— | Posthumous Book of the Year Award[8] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
2018 | Sally Rooney Normal People |
Stuart Turton The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle |
Hilary McKay The Skylarks' War |
J. O. Morgan Assurances |
Bart van Es The Cut Out Girl: A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found |
— | [9] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan Coe Middle England |
Sara Collins The Confessions of Frannie Langton |
Asha & the Spirit Bird |
Mary Jean Chan Flèche |
Jack Fairweather The Volunteer [10] |
— | [11] | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2020 | Monique Roffey The Mermaid of Black Conch: A Love Story |
Ingrid Persaud Love After Love |
Natasha Farrant Voyage of the Sparrowhawk |
Eavan Boland The Historians |
Lee Lawrence The Louder I Will Sing |
Tessa Sheridan The Person Who Serves, Serves Again |
[12] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Year | Novel | First novel | Children's book | Poetry | Biography | Short story |
Notes & Refs | ||||||||||||||||||||||
"—" not awarded this year |
See also[]
- List of British literary awards
- List of Irish literary awards
- List of literary awards
- English literature
- Irish literature
- European literature
- British literature
- Literature
- List of years in literature
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c (CBA-Past-Winners-2015-Version.pdf) Archived 15 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Costa Book Awards. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
- ^ Jump up to: a b (CBA-Past-Shortlists-2015-Version.pdf) Archived 24 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Costa Book Awards. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Alison Flood (17 July 2012). "Costa's new short story award to be judged anonymously". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
- ^
Danuta Kean. "On eve of Costa awards, experts warn that top books prizes are harming fiction". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
The biggest three prizes, including the Costas, require a £5,000 fee from publishers if a book is shortlisted. This is a contribution towards marketing and should, the organisers claim, be offset by increases in sales.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 November 2016. Retrieved 24 November 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- ^ Jump up to: a b Alison Flood (28 November 2012). "Costa short story prize to be decided by public vote". Alison Flood. 28 November 2012. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
- ^ "Costa Short Story Award". Costa Book Awards. Retrieved 2014-02-03.
- ^ "Costa Book Awards 2017" (PDF). Costa Book Awards. January 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 January 2018. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
- ^ "Costa Book Awards 2018: the category award winners are..." BBC. January 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
- ^ Chandler, Mark (28 January 2020). "Costa Book of the Year won by Fairweather's The Volunteer". The Bookseller. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
- ^ Doyle, Martin (6 January 2020). "Costa Book Awards 2019 winners revealed". The Irish Times. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
- ^ "Costa Book of the Year: 'Utterly original' Mermaid of Black Conch wins". BBC. January 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
External links[]
- Costa Book Awards
- 1971 establishments in the United Kingdom
- Awards established in 1971
- English-language literary awards