The Reading Nook

The Costa Book Award Project is another ongoing challenge with no time limit.

The Costa Book Awards consist of a total of 6 awards: Novel Award, First Novel Award, Biography Award, Poetry Award and Children’s Book Award. One of those winners is then given the Book of the Year Award. The category award winners by year are listed below. The Book of the Year is noted by 3 asterisks (***). Prior to 2006, the Costa Book Awards were known as the Whitbread Book Awards.

Books I’ve read are crossed out. I will link to reviews for future reads.

2007

First Novel Award – What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn
Novel Award – Day by A L Kennedy***
Biography Award – Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Poetry Award – Tilt by Jean Sprackland
Children’s Book Award – The Bower Bird by Ann Kelley

2006

First Novel Award – The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney***
Novel Award – Restless by William Boyd
Biography Award – Keeping Mum by Brian Thompson
Poetry Award – Letter to Patience by John Haynes
Children’s Book Award – Set in Stone by Linda Newbery

2005

First Novel Award – The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw
Novel Award – The Accidental by Ali Smith
Biography Award – Matisse: The Master by Hilary Spurling***
Poetry Award – Cold Calls by Christopher Logue
Children’s Book Award – The New Policeman by Kate Thompson

2004

First Novel Award – Eve Green by Susan Fletcher
Novel Award – Small Island by Andrea Levy***
Biography Award – My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots by John Guy
Poetry Award – Corpus by Michael Simmons
Children’s Book Award – Not the End of the World by Geraldine McCaughrean

2003

First Novel Award – Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
Novel Award – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon***
Biography Award – Orwell: The Life by DJ Taylor
Poetry Award – Landing Light by Don Paterson
Children’s Book Award – The Fire-Eaters by David Almond

2002

First Novel Award – The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
Novel Award – Spies by Michael Frayn
Biography Award – Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self by Claire Tomalin***
Poetry Award – The Ice Age by Paul Farley
Children’s Book Award – Saffy’s Angel by Hilary McKay

2001

First Novel Award – Something Like a House by Sid Smith
Novel Award – Twelve Bar Blues by Patrick Neate
Biography Award – Selkirk’s Island by Diana Souhami
Poetry Award – Bunny by Selima Hill
Children’s Book Award – The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman***

2000

First Novel Award – White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Novel Award – English Passengers by Matthew Kneale***
Biography Award – Bad Blood by Lorna Sage
Poetry Award – The Asylum Dance by John Burnside
Children’s Book Award – Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin

1999

First Novel Award – White City Blue by Tim Lott
Novel Award – Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
Biography Award – Berlioz, Volume 2 by David Cairns
Poetry Award – Beowulf by Seamus Heaney***
Children’s Book Award – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling

1998

First Novel Award – The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden
Novel Award – Leading the Cheers by Justin Cartwright
Biography Award – Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
Poetry Award – Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes***
Children’s Book Award – Skellig by David Almond

1997

First Novel Award – The Ventriloquist’s Tale by Pauline Melville
Novel Award – Quarantine by Jim Crace
Biography Award – Victor Hugo by Graham Robb
Poetry Award – Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes***
Children’s Book Award – Aquila by Andrew Norriss

1996

First Novel Award – The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester
Novel Award – Every Man for Himself by Beryl Bainbridge
Biography Award – Thomas Cranmer: A Life by Diarmaid MacCulloch
Poetry Award – The Spirit Level by Seamus Heaney***
Children’s Book Award – The Tulip Touch by Anne Fine

1995

First Novel Award – Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson***
Novel Award – The Moor’s Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie
Biography Award – Gladstone by Roy Jenkins
Poetry Award – Gunpowder by Bernard O’Donoghue
Children’s Book Award – The Wreck of the Zanzibar by Michael Morpurgo

1994

First Novel Award – The Longest Memory by Fred D’Aguiar
Novel Award – Felicia’s Journey by William Trevor***
Biography Award – D. H. Lawrence: The Married Man by Brenda Maddox
Poetry Award – Out of Danger by James Fenton
Children’s Book Award – Gold Dust by Geraldine McCaughrean

1993

First Novel Award – Saving Agnes by Rachel Cusk
Novel Award – Theory of War by Joan Brady***
Biography Award – Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life by Andrew Motion
Poetry Award – Mean Time by Carol Ann Duffy
Children’s Book Award – Flour Babies by Anne Fine

1992

First Novel Award – Swing Hammer Swing! by Jeff Torrington***
Novel Award – Poor Things by Alasdair Gray
Biography Award – Trollope by Victoria Glendinning
Poetry Award – The Gaze of the Gorgon by Tony Harrison
Children’s Book Award -The Great Elephant Chase by Gillian Cross

1991

First Novel Award – Alma Cogan by Gordon Burn
Novel Award – The Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam
Biography Award – A Life of Picasso by John Richardson***
Poetry Award – Gorse Fires by Michael Longley
Children’s Book Award – Harvey Angell by Diana Hendry

1990

First Novel Award – The Buddha of Suburbia by Nicholas Mosley
Novel Award – Hopeful Monsters by Nicholas Mosley***
Biography Award – A A Milne: His Life by Ann Thwaite
Poetry Award – Daddy, Daddy by Paul Durcan
Children’s Book Award – AK by Peter Dickinson

1989

First Novel Award – Gerontius by James Hamilton-Paterson
Novel Award – The Chymical Wedding by Lindsay Clarke
Biography Award – Coleridge: Early Visions by Richard Holmes***
Poetry Award – Shibboleth by Michael Donaghy
Children’s Book Award – Why Weeps the Brogan? by Hugh Scott

1988

First Novel Award – The Comforts of Madness by Paul Sayer***
Novel Award – The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Biography Award – Tolstoy by A N Wilson
Poetry Award – The Automatic Oracle by Peter Porter
Children’s Book Award – Awaiting Developments by Judy Allen

1987

First Novel Award – The Other Garden by Francis Wyndham
Novel Award – The Child in Time by Ian McEwan
Biography Award – Under the Eye of the Clock by Christopher Nolan***
Poetry Award – The Haw Lantern by Seamus Heany
Children’s Book Award – A Little Lower than the Angels by Geraldine McCaughrean

1986

First Novel Award – Continent by Jim Crace
Novel Award – An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro***
Biography Award – Gilbert White by Richard Mabey
Poetry Award – Stet by Peter Reading
Children’s Book Award – The Coal House by Andrew Taylor

1985

First Novel Award – Oranges are not the only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Novel Award – Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd
Biography Award – Hugh Dalton by Ben Pimlott
Poetry Award – Elegies by Douglas Dunn***
Children’s Book Award – The Nature of the Beast by Janni Howker

[Note: The issuance of a Book of the Year award began in 1985. Between 1971 and 1984, categories shifted and awards were not given in all categories. ]

1984

First Novel Award – A Parish of Rich Women by James Buchan
Novel Award – Kruger’s Alp by Christopher Hope
Biography Award – T S Eliot by Peter Ackroyd
Short Story Award – Tomorrow is our Permanent Address by Diane Rowe
Children’s Book Award – The Queen of the Pharisees’ Children by Barbara Willard

1983

First Novel Award – Flying to Nowhere by John Fuller
Novel Award – Fools of Fortune by William Trevor
Joint Biography Award – Vita by Victoria Glendining and King George V by Kenneth Rose
Children’s Book Award – The Witches by Roald Dahl

1982

First Novel Award – On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin
Novel Award – Young Shoulders by John Wain
Biography Award – Bismarck by Edward Crankshaw
Children’s Book Award – The Song of Pentecost by W J Corbett

1981

First Novel Award – A Good Man in Africa by William Boyd
Novel Award – Silver’s City by Maurice Leitch
Biography Award – Monty: The Making of a General by Nigel Hamilton
Children’s Book Award – The Hollow Land by Jane Gardam

1980

Novel Award – How Far Can You Go? by David Lodge
Biography Award – On the Edge of Paradise: A C Benson the Diarist by David Newsome
Childen’s Book Award – John Diamond by Leon Garfield

1979

Novel Award – The Old Jest by Jennifer Johnston
Autobiography Award – About Time by Penelope Mortimer
Children’s Book Award – Tulku by Peter Dickinson

1978

Novel Award – Picture Palace by Paul Theroux
Biography Award – Lloyd George: the People’s Champion by John Grigg
Children’s Book Award – The Battle of Bubble & Squeak by Philippa Pearce

1977

Novel Award – Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge
Biography Award – Mary Curzon by Nigel Nicolson
Children’s Book Award – No End to Yesterday by Shelagh Macdonald

1976

Novel Award – The Children of Dynmouth by William Trevor
Biography Award – Elizabeth Gaskell by Winifred Gerin
Children’s Book Award – A Stitch in Time by Penelope Lively

1975

Novel Award – Docherty by William McIlvanney
Autobiography Award – In Our Infancy by Helen Corke
First Book Award – The Improbable Puritan: A Life of Bulstrode Whitelock by Ruth Spalding

1974

Novel Award – The Sacred & Profane Love Machine by Iris Murdoch
Biography Award – Poor Dear Brendan by Andrew Boyle
Joint Children’s Books – How Tom Beat captain Najork & His Hired Sportsmen by Russell Hoban & Quentin Blake, The Emperor’s Winding Sheet by Jill Paton Walsh
First Book Award – The Life & Death of Mary Wollstonecraft by Claire Tomalin

1973

Novel Award – The Chip Chip Gatherers by Shiva Naipaul
Biography Award – CB: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman by John Wilson
Children’s Book Award – The Butterfly Ball & The Grasshopper’s Feast by Alan Aldridge & William Plomer

1972

Novel Award – The Bird of Night by Susan Hill
Biography Award – Trollope by James Pope-Hennessey
Children’s Book Award – The Diddakoi by Rumer Godden

1971

Novel Award – The Destiny Waltz by Gerda Charles
Biography Award – Henrik Ibsen by Michael Meyer
Poetry Award – Mercian Hymns by Geoffrey Hill