Costa (foremrly Whitbread) Book Awards. Winners. Shortlists. 1971 to present

World-Class' Scottish Novelist Wins Costa 2007 Costa Book of the Year Award- She Also Does Stand-up Comedy! ( links this page to amazon.com)

al_kennedy

London 24th Jan- A. L. Kennedy (left), the Scottish stand-up comedian and author, has won the Costa Book of the Year Award for her fifth novel, Day: A novel about a former Royal Air Force tail-gunner and prisoner of war who returns to Germany to confront his demons. The Costa Book Awards, formerly the Whitbread Book Awards, honour books by writers based in Britain and Ireland. The judges said that Ms. Kennedy, who lives in Glasgow, was chosen from a shortlist of five books “because, through an extraordinary act of ventriloquism, she describes the waste and eventual resurrection of a young life shattered by war.”

Ms. Kennedy's book had already won the Costa Novel of the Year Award.

Alison Kennedy Takes on the USA

Alison Kennedy interrupted a tour of America to come back home to receive the 2007 Costa Book of the Year Award. Her Costa winning novel, Day: A novel is not exactly setting the USA on fire, just yet anyway. It is riding at 136,000 (March 18TH 2008) or so in amazon.com sales although was up around 8,000 in early Feb compared to 113 in the amazon.co.uk lists . So, a bit of a publicity tour is not a bad idea.

Twice selected as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, the Encore Award and the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year Award— her winning novel about war manages somehow to be “both terrifying and hilarious”. The book had previously been nominated as the Costa Novel of the year and was one of five category winners shortlisted for the main prize (details below).

There is much more to A.L. Kennedy (the A. stands for Alison, not sure about the L.) than being an accomplished writer. She has appeared at quite a number of Edinburgh festivals as a Stand-Up Comic- literary agents should hold no fear for her at least. Perhaps she will now finally retire from Stand-up comedy as given her burgeoning success? Anyhow, her web site is certainly worth a visit to get an insight into her depth- an author to keep an eye on.

The judges, chaired by the novelist Joanna Trollope, were strongly divided between Day and What Was Lost: A Novel -, a debut novel by Catherine O'Flynn, a former post woman whose book, about a girl who goes missing in a shopping centre, was rejected by 15 publishers before it reached the bookstores.

About the Book- Day: A novel,

Alfie Day, RAF airman and former World War II POW, never expected to survive the war. He may not have even wanted to—choosing to be a tail gunner—exposed, alone and watchful for his skipper and his crew through night after night of bombing missions. Now, five years after the end of the war and more alone than ever, Alfie finds himself drawn to unearth those intense, strangely passionate days by working as an extra on a POW film. What he will discover on the set about himself, his loves and the world around him will make the war itself look simple.

Day is a superbly realized, emotionally charged, deeply affecting drama about the violence of modern life, and the intensity and courage to be found in the closeness of death. Blazing with Kennedy’s characteristic virtuosity, wit and narrative invention, Day is funny and moving, wise and sad, a dazzlingly original performance from one of the most gifted writers of our time.

The Ones AL Beat in the Costa Novel Award

The other shortlisted novels were Neil Bartlett’s Skin Lane (“a tale of the unexpected”), Rupert Thomson’s,Death of a Murderer(“an exquisitely-written ghost story”) and Rose Tremain’s The Road Home: A Novel (“wise, timely and emotionally satisfying”).

Hope for All Budding Novelists as Persistent Former Post woman Takes Out Costa Award First Novel Prize for 2007 with Surprise Win

catehrine_o_flynn Catherine O'Flynn (right), born in Birmingham in 1970 to a couple who ran a candy shop, has taken out the prize for the 2007 Costa First Novel Award in the prestigious UK Costa Awards What Was Lost: A Novel -. The book was turned down 15 times before being published and then long listed for the Man Booker and for the women-only Orange Prize this year and now has taken out the 2007 Costa. Brother, some of those readers and editors who rejected the manuscript must be cursing now. Ms. O'Flynn worked variously delivering the post, as a shop assistant in a record store and as a "mystery shopper", checking out store prices. Hope for all we budding authors, but don't give-up the day job just yet as my Darling One reminds me.

Judges, who were sent 553 submissions for this year's awards, say What Was Lost, which tells the story of a security guard with a sleep disorder whose life changes after glimpsing a mysterious child on CCTV, "pulls the rug from under your feet from the very first page'.

Guardian
'An exceptional,
polyphonic novel of urban disaffection, written
with humour and pathos'

Daily Mail
'A superb, haunting novel from a new literary talent'

Strong Runners-Up for First Novel

Ms. O' Flynn was in very strong company in this years final with, in our opinion, the Costa judges lifting the literary standard all round this year. Runners-up included Tahmima Anam, who was born in Bangladesh in 1975, and writes about the dangers facing a family as the former East Pakistan is plunged into its war of independence in the 1970s in her novel,A Golden Age: A Novel Look out for Ms. Tahmima down the track.

Another runner-up with a future is Roma Tearne, who left her native Sri Lanka aged 10. Mosquito, is a love story written against the background of the violence of the civil war.

Indian-born Nikita Lalwani, whose debut novel, rounded out the finalists with Gifted: A Novel. The book is about a young girl from an Indian immigrant family in this country and her accelerated education, which sees her get into Oxford University at the age of 15.

Stalin Stripped Bare Wins Biography
Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore which“opens up the previously hidden secrets of Stalin’s youth”, may have been something of a sup rise to some in the UK for the 2007 Costa Biography Award as many were tipping montefiore_simon g, Ben Macintyre’s Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal, to take the prize. Macintyre's book film rights was recently snapped up by the Oscar-winning Hollywood star Tom Hanks and New Line Cinema, fresh from the studio’s success with the Lord of the Rings blockbuster trilogy.

Mr. Sebag's win will come as no sup rise to many America's literary followers who may well have seen Orlando Figes generally glowing review of the book in November 8, New York Review Of Books. Mr. Figes should know what he is talking about as the author of the well-received The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia which was published in November. Mr. Figes is not alone in his admiration:

meticulously researched, authoritative biography of Stalin’s early years . . . Montefiore offers a detailed picture of Stalin’s childhood and youth, his shadowy career as a revolutionary in Georgia and his critical role during the October Revolution. No one, henceforth, need ever wonder how it was that Stalin found his way into Lenin’s inner circle, or took his place in the ruling troika that assumed power after the storming of the Winter Palace . . . Montefiore has worked his way with a fine-toothed comb through previously unread archival material in Russia and in Georgia . . . He successfully captures ‘the sheer weird singularity of the man’ and the lethal instincts that propelled him to the summit of power.”
–William Grimes, The New York Times

“The portrait of Stalin that emerges from these pages is more complete, more colourful, more chilling, and far more convincing than any we have had before . . . Montefiore is in a class of his own. As he did for Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, he has unearthed an unprecedented range of evidence [and] tracked down an astonishing range of witnesses . . . A brilliantly researched book, which finally dispels the myth of the ‘grey blur.’”
–Orlando Figes, New York Review of Books

“Once again tapping into a rich vein of material from previously closed archives in Russia and Georgia, Montefiore has produced a portrait of the young Stalin that is as complex and morbidly fascinating as his previous work. In this age of terror, it’s also a timely reminder of the terrorist origins of the Bolshevik revolutionaries who would soon unleash mass murder on a previously unimaginable scale.”
–Andrew Nagorski, Newsweek (international edition)

“Young Stalin is brilliantly readable, as intricately plotted and full of detail as a good novel, scrupulously researched, and full of hitherto unknown (or unreported) facts about Stalin’s life.”
–Michael Korda, Men’s Vogue

Got me there. Will order my copy today.

The other finalists were: Fatty Batter: How Cricket Saved My Life (And Then Ruined It) were the entertaining autobiography of one man’s lifelong obsession with cricket by Michael Simkins (an “enchanting gem of a book”)and Nureyev: The Life by Julie Kavanagh (“a consummate portrait of an artist who was not always likeable, but consistently fascinating”

Children's Award Won by Bower Bird

Ann Kelley's,The Bower Bird has won the 2008 Costa Children's Book Award beating off the challengers. A bitter-sweet moment for Ms. Kelley as the novel was partly inspired by the premature death of her son, Nathan, from a congenital heart and lung condition. Bless him and Ms. Kelley's courage.

According to the 2007 Costa Children's Book Award Judges Kelley reaches what appears to be an elevated state of artistry - in their words:

"The author as artist evokes people and places with delicacy, humour and truth a novel of outstanding beauty."

Runners-up included Crusade by Elizabeth Laird; the early favorite and generally US well-selling author Meg Rosoff 's What I Was: A Novel and the quirky Blood Red, Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick .

Next Generation Poet Becomes Now Generation Poet
“Sprackland’s poetic is one of concision: taut, well-paced lines and a satisfying exactitude. Her grasp of colloquial speech and sense of restraint make for skilful storytelling.”
Carrie Etter, Times Literary Supplement

In 2004 Jean Sprackland was named by the Poetry Book Society as one of the 'Next Generation' poets. Now as winner of the 2007 Costa Poetry Award with Tilt she has well and truly arrived.

Jean Sprackland's first collection of poetry, Tattoos for Mothers Day was shortlisted for the Forward First Book Award in 1999. Her second collection, Hard Water, was published by Cape in 2003 and shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Award and the Whitbread Poe jean_sprackland try Award.

Jean Sprackland's third collection describes a world in free-fall. Chaos and calamity are at our shoulder, in the shape of fire and flood, ice-storm and hurricane; trains stand still, zoos are abandoned, migrating birds lose their way - all surfaces are unreliable, all territories unmapped. These are poems that explore the ambivalence and dark unease of slippage and collapse, but they also carry a powerful sense of the miraculous made manifest amongst the ordinary: the mating of natterjack toads, ice on the beach ('dream stuff, with its own internal acoustic') or 'the fund of life' in a used contraceptive. Bracken may run wild across the planet 'waiting for the moment/to pounce on the accident/of the discarded match' but there are also the significant wonders of children and the natural beauty of the world they've inherited. Tilt is a collection of raw, distressed and beautiful poems, a hymn to the remarkable survival of things in the face of threat - for every degradation an epiphany, for every drowning a birth.

Ms. Sprackland took the prize ahead of The Speed of Dark. by Ian Duhig, The Space of Joy by John Fuller and the pre-announcement favourite from first time published Daljit Nagra's Look We Have Coming to Dover! (review)

2007 British Costa Novel Award

A Golden Age: A Novel by Tahmima Anam,
Gifted: A Novel by Nikita Lalwani
What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn- Winner
Mosquito by Roma Tearne

2007 Costa First Novel Award

Skin Lane by Neil Bartlett
Day: A novel by A.L. Kennedy - Winner
Death of a Murderer by Rupert Thomson
The Road Home by Rose Tremain

2007 Costa Children's Literature Award

The Bower Bird by Ann Kelley- Winner
Crusade by Elizabeth Laird
What I Was: A Novel by Meg Rosoff
Blood Red, Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick

2007 Costa Poetry Award

The Speed of Dark. by Ian Duhig
by John Fuller The Space of Joy
Look We Have Coming to Dover! by Daljit Nagra -review
Tilt by Jean Sprackland- Winner
2007 Costa Biography Award
Nureyev: The Life by Julie Kavanagh
Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal by Ben Macintyre
Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore- Winner
Fatty Batter: How Cricket Saved My Life (And Then Ruined It) by Michael Simkins

The 2006 Book of the Year was won by Stef Penney for The Tenderness of Wolves: A Novel.
2006 Winner Stef Penney's (below)The Tenderness of Wolves: A Novel

stef_penney 1867, Canada. As winter tightens its grip on the isolated settlement of Dove River, a man is brutally murdered and a seventeen-year-old boy disappears. Tracks leaving the dead man's cabin head north towards the forest and the tundra beyond. In the wake of such violence, people are drawn to the township journalists, Hudson Bay Company men, trappers, traders but do they want to solve the crime, or exploit it?

The Tenderness of Wolves, published by Quercus, is Stef Penney's first novel and is only the fourth first novel to take the overall prize.

Stef Penney grew up in Edinburgh and studied at Bristol University before turning to film-making. She was selected for the Carlton Television New Writers' Scheme and has since written and directed two short films. On leaving university, Stef became agoraphobic and could barely travel. She has never been to Canada and researched The Tenderness of Wolves at The British Library. Now recovered, Stef lives in East London. Read Guardian coverage

What the judges said:

"The Tenderness of Wolves stood out from a very strong shortlist. We felt enveloped by the snowy landscape and gripped by the beautiful writing and effortless story-telling. It is a story of love, suspense and beauty. We couldn't put it down." Oh lovely .. deep sigh.

2006 Costa Book Award Category Winners

2006 Costa First Novel Award winner
Stef Penney - The Tenderness of Wolves: A Novel

What the judges said:
"The Tenderness of Wolves stood out from a very strong shortlist. We felt enveloped by the snowy landscape and gripped by the beautiful writing and effortless story-telling. It is a story of love, suspense and beauty. We couldn't put it down."

2006 Costa Novel Award winner

William Boyd - Restless: A Novel

What the judges said:
"Restless remains in the mind long after you finish it. Its scenes of wartime tension, the smell of espionage and the consequences of deceitful lives. Double cross, double bluff - all written with effortless clarity resulting in an unputdownable read."

2006 Costa Children's Book Award winner

Linda Newbery - Set In Stone

What the judges said:
"As beautifully crafted as one of the statues adorning the house in the story, this emotionally charged narrative will thrill all lovers of intelligent fiction."

2006 Costa Poetry Award winner

John Haynes - Letter to Patience

What the judges said:
"John Haynes Letter to Patience was the judges unanimous choice and a clear winner; a unique long poem of outstanding quality, condensing a lifetime of reflection and experience into a work of transporting momentum, imaginative lucidity, and consummate formal accomplishment."

2006 Costa Biography Award winner

Brian Thompson - Keeping Mum: A Wartime Childhood

What the judges said:
"This vivid, life-affirming and deftly-written book is a perfect antidote to the 'misery memoir'. We defy anyone not to enjoy it."

THE WHITBREAD BOOK AWARDS
The Whitbread Book Awards were established in 1971 and encouraged, promoted and celebrated the enjoyment of reading.

WHITBREAD WINNERS 1971 – 2005

2005
BOOK OF THE YEAR
MATISSE: THE MASTER
Hilary Spurling
Hamish Hamilton

First Novel Award
The Harmony Silk Factory
Tash Aw
Harper Perennial

Novel Award
The accidental
Ali Smith
Hamish Hamilton

Biography Award
Matisse: The Master
Hilary Spurling
Hamish Hamilton

Poetry Award
Cold Calls
Christopher Logue
Faber and Faber

Children’s Book Award

The New Policeman
Kate Thompson- The Bodley Head

2004
BOOK OF THE YEAR
SMALL ISLAND
Andrea Levy
Headline

First Novel Award
Eve Green
Susan Fletcher

Novel Award
Small Island
Andrea Levy

Biography Award
My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots
John Guy
Fourth Estate

Poetry Award
Corpus
Michael Simmons Roberts
Jonathan Cape

Children’s Book Award
Not the End of the World
Geraldine McCaughrean
Oxford University Press

2003
BOOK OF THE YEAR
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME
Mark Haddon
Jonathan Cape

First Novel Award
Vernon God Little
DBC Pierre
Faber & Faber

Novel Award
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Mark Haddon
Jonathan Cape

Biography Award
Orwell: The Life
DJ Taylor
Chatto & Windus

Poetry Award
Landing Light
Don Paterson
Faber & Faber

Children’s Book Award
The Fire-Eaters
David Almond
Hodder Children’s

2002
BOOK OF THE YEAR
SAMUEL PEPYS: THE UNEQUALLED SELF
Claire Tomalin
Viking

First Novel Award
The Song of Names
Norman Lebrecht
Review

Novel Award
Spies
Michael Frayn
Faber & Faber

Biography Award
Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self
Claire Tomalin
Viking

Poetry Award
The Ice Age
Paul Farley
Picador

Children’s Book Award
Saffy’s Angel
Hilary McKay
Hodder Children’s
NB: The structure of the Awards changed for the final time in 2002, and the Whitbread

Children’s Book
of the Year reverted to the original format of being one of five categories, with its winner, like the others, selected by the category judges and competing for title of Whitbread Book of the Year.

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2001
BOOK OF THE YEAR
THE AMBER SPYGLASS
Philip Pullman
Scholastic

CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR
The Amber Spyglass
Philip Pullman
Scholastic

First Novel Award
Something Like a House
Sid Smith
Picador

Novel Award
Twelve Bar Blues
Patrick Neate
Viking

Biography Award
Selkirk’s Island
Diana Souhami
Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Poetry Award
Bunny
Selima Hill
Bloodaxe
2000

2000 BOOK OF THE YEAR
ENGLISH PASSENGERS
Matthew Kneale
Hamish Hamilton

CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR
Coram Boy
Jamila Gavin
Egmont

First Novel Award
White Teeth
Zadie Smith
Hamish Hamilton

Novel Award
English Passengers
Matthew Kneale
Hamish Hamilton

Biography Award
Bad Blood
Lorna Sage
Fourth Estate

Poetry Award
The Asylum Dance
John Burnside
Cape Poetry
1999

1999 BOOK OF THE YEAR
BEOWULF
Seamus Heaney
Faber & Faber

CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
J K Rowling
Bloomsbury

First Novel Award
White City Blue
Tim Lott
Viking

Novel Award
Music and Silence
ceRose Tremain
Chatto & Windus

Biography Award
Berlioz, Volume 2
David Cairns
Allen Lane The Penguin Press

Poetry Award
Beowulf
Seamus Heaney
Faber & Faber
NB: The structure of the Awards changed once more in 1999 when the winner of the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year was selected by the final judging panel and then judged against the other four categories
for overall Whitbread Book of the Year.

1998
BOOK OF THE YEAR
BIRTHDAY LETTERS
Ted Hughes
Faber & Faber

CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR
SKELLIG
David Almond
Hodder Children’s Books

First Novel Award
The Last King of Scotland
Giles Foden
Faber & Faber

Novel Award
Leading the Cheers
Justin Cartwright
Sceptre

Biography Award
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
Amanda Foreman
HarperCollins

Poetry Award
Birthday Letters
Ted Hughes
Faber & Faber

1997
BOOK OF THE YEAR
TALES FROM OVID
Ted Hughes
Faber & Faber

CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR
AQUILA
Andrew Norriss
Hamish Hamilton

First Novel Award
The Ventriloquist’s Tale
Pauline Melville
Bloomsbury

Novel Award
Quarantine
Jim Crace
Viking

Biography Award
Victor Hugo
Graham Robb
Picador

Poetry Award
Tales from Ovid
Ted Hughes
Faber & Faber

1996
BOOK OF THE YEAR
THE SPIRIT LEVEL
Seamus Heaney
Faber & Faber

CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR
THE TULIP TOUCH
Anne Fine
Hamish Hamilton

First Novel Award
The Debt to Pleasure
John Lanchester
Picador

Novel Award
Every Man for Himself
Beryl Bainbridge
Duckworth

Biography Award
Thomas Cranmer: A Life
Diarmaid MacCulloch
Yale University Press

Poetry Award
The Spirit Level
Seamus Heaney
Faber & Faber
NB: The structure of the Awards changed again in 1996 when the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year became an award in its own right (ie not judged against the other four categories) for the first time, with prize money of £10,000.

1995
BOOK OF THE YEAR
BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE MUSEUM
Kate Atkinson
Doubleday/Black Swan

First Novel
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Kate Atkinson
Doubleday/Black Swan

Novel
The Moor’s Last Sigh
Salman Rushdie
Jonathan Cape

Biography
Gladstone
Roy Jenkins
Macmillan

Poetry
Gunpowder
Bernard O’Donoghue
Chatto & Windus

Beefeater Children’s Novel
The Wreck of the Zanzibar
Michael Morpurgo
Heinemann/Mammoth

1994
BOOK OF THE YEAR
FELICIA’S JOURNEY
William Trevor
Viking

First Novel
The Longest Memory
Fred D'Aguiar
Chatto & Windus

Novel
Felicia's Journey
William Trevor
Viking

Biography
D H Lawrence: The Married Man
Brenda Maddox
Sinclair-Stevenson
Poetry

Out of Danger
James Fenton
Penguin Poetry

Children's Novel
Gold Dust
Geraldine McCaughrean
OUP

1993
BOOK OF THE YEAR
THEORY OF WAR
Joan Brady
Andre Deutsch

First Novel
Saving Agnes
Rachel Cusk
Macmillan

Novel
Theory of War
Joan Brady
Andre Deutsch

Biography
Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life
Andrew Motion
Faber & Faber

Poetry
Mean Time
Carol Ann Duffy
Anvil Press

Children's Novel
Flour Babies
Anne Fine
Hamish Hamilton

1992
BOOK OF THE YEAR
SWING HAMMER SWING!
Jeff Torrington
Secker & Warburg

First Novel
Swing Hammer Swing!
Jeff Torrington
Secker & Warburg

Novel
Poor Things
Alasdair Gray
Bloomsbury

Biography
Trollope
Victoria Glendinning
Hutchinson

Poetry
The Gaze of the Gorgon
Tony Harrison
Bloodaxe Books

Children's Novel
The Great Elephant Chase
Gillian Cross
OUP

1991
BOOK OF THE YEAR
A LIFE OF PICASSO
John Richardson
Jonathan Cape

First Novel
Alma Cogan
Gordon Burn
Secker & Warburg

Novel
The Queen of the Tambourine
Jane Gardam
Sinclair-Stevenson

Biography
A Life of Picasso
John Richardson
Jonathan Cape

Poetry
Gorse Fires
Michael Longley
Secker & Warburg

Children's Novel
Harvey Angell
Diana Hendry
Julia MacRae

1990
BOOK OF THE YEAR
HOPEFUL MONSTERS
Nicholas Mosley
Secker & Warburg

First Novel
The Buddha of Suburbia
Hanif Kureishi
Faber & Faber

Novel
Hopeful Monsters
Nicholas Mosley
Secker & Warburg

Biography
A A Milne: His Life
Ann Thwaite
Faber & Faber

Poetry
Daddy, Daddy
Paul Durcan
The Blackstaff Press

Children’s Novel

Peter Dickinson
Victor Gollancz

1989
BOOK OF THE YEAR
COLERIDGE: EARLY VISIONS
Richard Holmes
Hodder & Stoughton
First Novel
Gerontius
James Hamilton-Paterson
Macmillan
Novel
The Chymical Wedding
Lindsay Clarke
Jonathan Cape
Biography
Coleridge: Early Visions
Richard Holmes
Hodder & Stoughton
Poetry
Shibboleth
Michael Donaghy
OUP
Children's Novel
Why Weeps the Brogan?
Hugh Scott
Walker Books

1988
BOOK OF THE YEAR
THE COMFORTS OF MADNESS
Paul Sayer
Constable

First Novel
The Comforts of Madness
Paul Sayer
Constable

Novel
The Satanic Verses
Salman Rushdie
Viking

Biography
Tolstoy
A N Wilson
Hamish Hamilton

Poetry
The Automatic Oracle
Peter Porter
OUP

Children's Novel
Awaiting Developments
Judy Allen
Julia MacRae

1987
BOOK OF THE YEAR
UNDER THE EYE OF THE CLOCK
Christopher Nolan
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
First Novel
The Other Garden
Francis Wyndham
Jonathan Cape

Novel
The Child in Time
Ian McEwan
Jonathan Cape
Biography
Under the Eye of the Clock
Christopher Nolan
Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Poetry
The Haw Lantern
Seamus Heaney
Faber & Faber
Children's Novel
A Little Lower than the Angels
Geraldine McCaughrean
OUP

1986
BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN ARTIST OF THE
Kazuo Ishiguro
Faber & Faber
FLOATING WORLD

First Novel
Continent
Jim Crace
Heinemann

Novel
An Artist of the Floating World
Kazuo Ishiguro
Faber & Faber

Biography
Gilbert White
Richard Mabey
Century Hutchinson

Poetry
Stet
Peter Reading
Secker & Warburg

Children's Novel
The Coal House
Andrew Taylor
Collins

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1985
BOOK OF THE YEAR
ELEGIES
Douglas Dunn
Faber & Faber

First Novel
Oranges are not the only Fruit
Jeanette Winterson
Pandora Press

Novel
Hawksmoor
Peter Ackroyd
Hamish Hamilton

Biography
Hugh Dalton
Ben Pimlott
Jonathan Cape

Poetry
Elegies
Douglas Dunn
Faber & Faber

Children’s Novel
The Nature of the Beast
Janni Howker
Julia MacRae
NB: The Whitbread Book of the Year was awarded for the first time in 1985 when the format of the Awards was changed. Prior to that, the Whitbread Literary Awards (as they were then called) were given as follows:

1984
First Novel
A Parish of Rich Women
James Buchan
Hamish Hamilton

Novel
Kruger's Alp
Christopher Hope
Heinemann

Biography
T S Eliot
Peter Ackroyd
Hamish Hamilton

Short Story
Tomorrow is our Permanent Address
Diane Rowe

Children’s Novel
The Queen of the Pharisees' Children
Barbara Willard
Julia MacRae

1983
First Novel
Flying to Nowhere
John Fuller
Salamander Press

Novel
Fools of Fortune
William Trevor
Bodley Head

Joint Biography
Vita
Victoria Glendinning
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
King George V
Kenneth Rose
Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Children’s Novel
The Witches
Roald Dahl
Jonathan Cape

1982
First Novel
On the Black Hill
Bruce Chatwin
Jonathan Cape

Novel
Young Shoulders
John Wain
Macmillan

Biography
Bismarck
Edward Crankshaw
Macmillan

Children's Novel
The Song of Pentecost
W J Corbett
Methuen

1981
First Novel
A Good Man in Africa
William Boyd
Hamish Hamilton

Novel
Silver's City
Maurice Leitch
Secker & Warburg

Biography
Monty: The Making of a General
Nigel Hamilton
Hamish Hamilton

Children's Novel
The Hollow Land
Jane Gardam
Julia MacRae

1980
Novel and Book of the Year
How Far Can You Go?
David Lodge
Secker & Warburg

Biography
On the Edge of Paradise:
A C Benson the Diarist
David Newsome
John Murrary

Children's Novel
John Diamond
Leon Garfield
Kestrel

1979
Novel
The Old Jest
Jennifer Johnston
Hamish Hamilton

Autobiography
About Time
Penelope Mortimer
Allen Lane

Children's Novel
Tulku
Peter Dickinson
Victor Gollancz

1978
Novel
Picture Palace
Paul Theroux
Hamish Hamilton

Biography
Lloyd George: The People's Champion
John Grigg
Methuen

Children’s Book
The Battle of Bubble & Squeak
Philippa Pearce
Andre Deutsch

1977
Novel
Injury Time
Beryl Bainbridge
Duckworth

Biography
Mary Curzon
Nigel Nicolson
Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Children’s Book
No End to Yesterday
Shelagh Macdonald
Andre Deutsch

1976
Novel
The Children of Dynmouth
William Trevor
Bodley Head

Biography
Elizabeth Gaskell
Winifred Gerin
OUP

Children's Book
A Stitch in Time
Penelope Lively
William Heinemann

1975
Novel
Docherty
William McIlvanney
Allen & Unwin

Autobiography
In Our Infancy
Helen Corke
Cambridge University Press

First Book
The Improbable Puritan:
A Life of Bulstrode Whitelock
Ruth Spalding
Faber & Faber
.
1974
Novel
The Sacred & Profane Love Machine
Iris Murdoch
Chatto & Windus

Biography
Poor Dear Brendan
Andrew Boyle
Hutchinson

Joint Children's Books
How Tom Beat Captain Najork & His Hired Sportsmen
Russell Hoban & Quentin Blake
Jonathan Cape
The Emperor's Winding Sheet
Jill Paton Walsh
Macmillan

First Book
The Life & Death of Mary Wollstonecraft
Claire Tomalin
Weidenfeld & Nicolson

1973
Novel
The Chip Chip Gatherers
Shiva Naipaul
Andre Deutsch

Biography
CB: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
John Wilson
Constable

Children's Book
The Butterfly Ball & The Grasshopper's Feast
Alan Aldridge & William Plomer
Jonathan Cape
1972

Novel
The Bird of Night
Susan Hill
Hamish Hamilton

Biography
Trollope
James Pope-Hennessey
Jonathan Cape

Children's Book
The Diddakoi
Rumer Godden
Macmillan

1971
Novel
The Destiny Waltz
Gerda Charles
Eyre & Spottiswoode

Biography
Henrik Ibsen
Michael Meyer
Hart-Davis

Poetry
Mercian Hymns
Geoffrey Hill
Andre Deutsch