The Costa Book Awards is the only major UK book prize that is open solely to authors resident in the UK and Ireland and also, uniquely, recognises the most enjoyable books across five categories – First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book - published in the last year.
Originally established in 1971 by Whitbread Plc, Costa announced its takeover of the sponsorship of one of the UK's most prestigious book prizes in 2006. 2015 marks the 44th year of the Book Awards.
This year’s Costa Book Awards attracted 638 entries. Judges on this year’s panels (three per category) included writers Matt Haig, Louise Doughty and Martyn Bedford, poet and children’s author Julia Copus and biographer and broadcaster Penny Junor.
Winners in the five categories, who each receive £5,000, will be announced on Monday 4th January 2016. The overall winner of the 2015 Costa Book of the Year will receive £30,000 and will be selected and announced at the Costa Book Awards ceremony in central London on Tuesday 26th January 2016.
“The quality and breadth of talent and writing in this year’s lists is staggering and there is something here for everyone,” commented Christopher Rogers, Managing Director of Costa. “I’m looking forward to reading the books and don’t envy the judges task of whittling these fantastic shortlists down to just one winner per category.”
The winner of the Costa Short Story Award, voted for by the public, will also be announced at the ceremony. The shortlisted six stories for the Costa Short Story Award, now in its fourth year, will be revealed on the Costa Book Awards website, www.costabookawards.com, on Monday 30th November.
Since the introduction of the Book of the Year award in 1985, it has been won eleven times by a novel, five times by a first novel, six times by a biography, seven times by a collection of poetry and once by a children’s book. The 2014 Costa Book of the Year was H is for Hawk by writer, poet and historian, Helen Macdonald.
To be eligible for the 2015 Costa Book Awards, books must have been first published in the UK or Ireland between 1 November 2014 and 31 October 2015 and their authors resident in the UK for the previous three years.
For additional information please visit www.costabookawards.com
COSTA BOOK AWARDS 2015 SHORTLISTS
2015 Costa Novel Award shortlist
- Kate Atkinson for A God in Ruins (Doubleday)
- Anne Enright for The Green Road (Jonathan Cape)
- Patrick Gale for A Place Called Winter (Tinder Press)
- Melissa Harrison for At Hawthorn Time (Bloomsbury)
2015 Costa First Novel Award shortlist
- Sara Baume for Spill Simmer Falter Wither (Windmill Books)
- Kate Hamer for The Girl in the Red Coat (Faber & Faber)
- Andrew Michael Hurley for The Loney (John Murray)
- Tasha Kavanagh for Things We Have in Common (Canongate)
2015 Costa Biography Award shortlist
- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst for The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland (Harvill Secker)
- Thomas Harding for The House by the Lake (William Heinemann)
- Ruth Scurr for John Aubrey: My Own Life (Chatto & Windus)
- Andrea Wulf for The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science (John Murray)
2015 Costa Poetry Award shortlist
- Andrew McMillan for Physical (Jonathan Cape)
- Kate Miller for The Observances (Carcanet)
- Don Paterson for 40 Sonnets (Faber & Faber)
- Neil Rollinson for Talking Dead (Jonathan Cape)
2015 Costa Children’s Book Award shortlist
- Frances Hardinge for The Lie Tree (Macmillan Children’s Books)
- Hayley Long for Sophie Someone (Hot Key Books)
- Sally Nicholls for An Island of Our Own (Scholastic)
- Andrew Norriss for Jessica’s Ghost (David Fickling Books)
SHORTLIST FOR THE 2015 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD
(112 entries)
Judges
Simon Heafield Marketing Manager, Foyles
Penny Junor Journalist, Biographer and Broadcaster
Jane Shilling Author and Critic
John Aubrey: My Own Life by Ruth Scurr (Chatto & Windus)
John Aubrey loved England. From an early age, he saw his England slipping away and, against extraordinary odds, committed himself to preserving for posterity what remained of it – in books, monuments and life stories. His Brief Lives would redefine the art of biography, yet he published only one rushed, botched book in his lifetime and died fearing his name and achievements would be forgotten. Ruth Scurr’s biography is an act of scholarly imagination: a diary drawn from John Aubrey’s own words, displaying his unique voice, dry wit, the irreverence and drama of a literary innovator.
Ruth Scurr is a historian, biographer and literary critic. She teaches history and politics at Cambridge University, where she is a Lecturer and Fellow of Gonville & Caius College. Her first book, Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize and was listed among the 100 Best Books of the Decade in The Times. She reviews regularly for the Times Literary Supplement, the Daily Telegraph and the Wall Street Journal.
Judges: “We were all beguiled and charmed by this hugely original take on the life of one of the 17th century’s most engaging chroniclers.”
The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst (Harvill Secker)
Wonderland is part of our cultural heritage – a shortcut for all that is beautiful and confusing; a metaphor used by artists, writers and politicians for 150 years. But beneath the fairy tale lies the complex history of the author and his subject: of Charles Dodgson, the quiet academic, and his second self, Lewis Carroll – storyteller, innovator and avid collector of 'child-friends'. And of his 'dream-child', Alice Liddell, and the fictional alter ego that would never let her grow up. This is their secret story: a history of love and loss, of innocence and ambiguity, and of one man’s need to make Wonderland his refuge in a rapidly changing world.
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst was born in 1968 and lives in Oxford where he is a Fellow and Tutor in English at Magdalen College. His most recent book, Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist, won the Duff Cooper Prize for Biography.
Judges: “This sparkling account opens doors into the life of one of the most enigmatic of 19th century writers and the inspiration behind his iconic creation.”
The House by the Lake by Thomas Harding (William Heinemann)
In the spring of 1993, Thomas Harding travelled to Berlin with his grandmother to visit a small house by a lake. It was her 'soul place', she said – a sanctuary she had been forced to leave when the Nazis swept to power. The trip was a chance to see the house one last time, to remember it as it was. But the house had changed. Twenty years later Thomas returned to Berlin. The house now stood empty, derelict, soon to be demolished. A concrete footpath cut through the garden, marking where the Berlin Wall had stood for nearly three decades. Elsewhere were signs of what the house had once been – blue tiles showing behind wallpaper, photographs fallen between floorboards, flagstones covered in dirt. Evidence of five families who had made the house their home over a tumultuous century.
Thomas Harding is a journalist who has written for several publications including the Sunday Times, Financial Times, Washington Post and the Guardian. He co-founded a television station in Oxford, and for many years was an award-winning publisher of a newspaper in West Virginia. He is also the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Hanns and Rudolf which was shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Biography Award. Thomas lives in Hampshire with his wife and daughter.
Judges: “With the pace of a thriller, and a wholly original perspective, this book offers an unforgettable and touching account of life in Germany throughout the turbulent 20th century.”
The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander Von Humboldt, The Lost Hero of Science by Andrea Wulf (John Murray)
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) is the great lost scientist. More things have been named after him than anyone who has ever lived – towns, rivers, mountain ranges, a penguin, a giant squid and even the Mare Humboldtianum on the moon. He inspired generations of thinkers and writers – Darwin set sail on the Beagle because of Humboldt, Napoleon was jealous of him and Captain Nemo in Jules Verne’s famous Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea owned all of his books. Yet today he is almost forgotten. The Invention of Nature brings this remarkable man back to life.
Andrea Wulf was born in India, moved to Germany as a child, and now lives in England. She is the author of several acclaimed books. The Brother Gardeners was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and Founding Gardeners was on the New York Times bestseller list. Andrea has written for many newspapers including the Guardian, LA Times and New York Times. She was the Eccles British Library Writer-in-Residence 2013 and a three-time fellow of the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello.
Judges: “An extraordinary book about an extraordinary man – written with pace, passion and panache.”
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