The nine awards are presented at the banquet of the World Fantasy Convention held each year in late October - early November. Two of the nominees on the final ballot are determined by readers while the remainder come from the ballots put together by a panel of judges who change annually. The judges select the recipients in a second round of voting. The awards are based on work done during the previous calendar year. The awards are presented at an evening ceremony during the World Science Fiction Convention.
Nominations are as result of ballots cast by the convention members who vote by mail.
They are counted using a weighted method whereby ballot entries, listed by preference, are assigned a value and then tallied. Those who fail to meet the cutoff or have the least number are dropped and the counting is redone until such time as a clear winner appears. The award is given for the best British science fiction novel from the previous year. Established in 1986, this year's award was announced by Paul J. McAuley, the previous year's winner. They are given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association for outstanding work done in the previous year.