News & Reviews

WORD: Whitbread Book Awards new sponsor Costa announces shortlist authors

Sponsorship of the Whitbread Book Awards, one of the UK’s most prestigious book prizes, has been taken over by UK coffee chain Costa, which announced its 2006 shortlist authors. The Costa Novel Award shortlist includes William Boyd for Restless (Bloomsbury), Neil Griffiths for Saving Caravaggio (Viking), Mark Haddon for A Spot of Bother (Jonathan Cape), David Mitchell for Black Swan Green (Sceptre), judges announced on Tuesday.

These authors will contend for a prize Ali Smith won last year for her novel The Accidental.

In addition to best novel, the Costa Book Awards includes First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book Award categories. Winners in the five categories, who each receive £5,000, will be announced on Wednesday, January 10, 2007.

The overall winner of the Costa Book of the Year 2006 will receive £25,000 and will be selected and announced at the Costa Book Awards ceremony in central London on Wednesday, February 7, 2007.

This year’s Costa Book Awards, which recognizes the most enjoyable books from writers based in the UK and Ireland, attracted 580 entries. That is the highest number of entries ever received in one year since the Book Awards began 35 years ago and a 21% increase from 2005, when it received 476 entries.

Each category’s shortlist was chosen by a panel of three judges, including author and broadcaster Kate Adie; authors Mike Gayle, Sophie Kinsella and Adèle Geras, and writer and broadcaster on language, Susie Dent from Countdown’s Dictionary Corner.

The Costa Book Awards, formerly the Whitbread Book Awards, were established in 1971 to encourage, promote and celebrate the best contemporary British writing.

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