# Costa Book Awards

The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then a brewery and owner of pub-restaurant chains, it was renamed when Costa Coffee, then a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship. The companion Costa Short Story Award was established in 2012. Costa Coffee was purchased by the Coca-Cola Company in 2018. The awards were abruptly terminated in 2022.
The awards were given both for high literary merit and for works that were enjoyable reading, and their aim was to convey the enjoyment of reading to the widest possible audience. As such, they were considered a more populist literary prize than the Booker Prize, which also limited winners to literature written in the English language and published in the UK and Ireland.
Awards were separated into six categories: Biography, Children's Books, First Novel, Novel, Poetry, and Short Story.
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.

## History

The 1989 Whitbread Book Award for Best Novel was first awarded to The War Zone by Alexander Stuart. However, juror Jane Gardam felt the book was "repellent" and appealed directly to the Whitbread company, arguing that awarding the prize to Stuart's novel would make them into a "laughing stock". After ten days, and leaking the story to the press, the other two jurors, David Cook and Val Hennessy, were persuaded to change their minds, and Lindsay Clarke's The Chymical Wedding won the award instead. Both Cook and Hennessy found the experience so unpleasant they vowed to never sit in an award jury again.
The awards were discontinued in 2022, with the 2021 awards being the last ones made. Just one month later, the Blue Peter Book Award was also discontinued; this left only three widely recognized awards for UK children's literature (the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, the Carnegie Medal, and the Kate Greenaway Medal).

## Process

There were five book award categories. These had not been changed since the Poetry Award was introduced in 1985, although the children's category had been termed "children's novel" or "children's book of the year". The categories are:
* Novel
* First novel
* Children's book
* Poetry
* Biography
Each of the five winning writers received £5,000. The prize required a £5,000 fee from publishers if a book was to be shortlisted.

### 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. The winning story was determined by public vote from a shortlist of six that were selected by a panel of judges. The process was "blind" at both stages for the unpublished entries were anonymous until the conclusion.
In the inaugural year, the six short story finalists were exposed anonymously online while the public vote was underway, two months before the winner was to be announced.

## Winners

Bold font and blue ribbon distinguish the overall Costa/Whitbread Book of the Year.
For lists that include shortlisted entries (where available), please see:
* Costa Book Award for Novel
* Costa Book Award for First Novel
* Costa Book Award for Children's Book
* Costa Book Award for Poetry
* Costa Book Award for Biography
* Costa Book Award for Short Story

### List of award winners

| Year | Award | Award | Award | Award | Award | Award | Notes & Refs |
| Year | Novel | First novel | Children's book | Poetry | Biography | Short story | Notes & Refs |
| 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 | — | Shelagh Macdonald 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 | Diane Rowe 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 The Other Garden | 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 | Judy Allen 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 | John Haynes Letter to Patience | Brian Thompson 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 | |
| 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 | Zoe Gilbert 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 | Danny Murphy Rogey | |
| 2016 | Sebastian Barry Days Without End | Francis Spufford Golden Hill | Brian Conaghan The Bombs That Brought Us Together | Alice Oswald Falling Awake | Keggie Carew Dadland: A Journey into Uncharted Territory | Jess Kidd 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 |
| 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 | — | |
| 2019 | Jonathan Coe Middle England | Sara Collins The Confessions of Frannie Langton | Jasbinder Bilan Asha & the Spirit Bird | Mary Jean Chan Flèche | Jack Fairweather The Volunteer | — | |
| 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 | |
| 2021 | Claire Fuller, Unsettled Ground | Caleb Azumah Nelson, Open Water | Manjeet Mann, The Crossing | Hannah Lowe, The Kids | John Preston, Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell | — | |
| Year | Novel | First novel | Children's book | Poetry | Biography | Short story | Notes & Refs |
| "—" not awarded this year ||||||||