Costa Book Awards

The Whitbread Book Award was established in 1971 to encourage, promote and celebrate the enjoyment of reading. 

They became the Costa Book Awards in 2006.

Highlighted books are the winners of the BOOK OF THE YEAR award as well as their category win.

Books marked with an (R) are ones I've read but not reviewed.
Books in green are on my TBR pile.

1971 Winners

Novel: Gerda Charles, The Destiny Waltz

Biography: Michael Meyer, Henrik Ibsen

Poetry: Geoffrey Hill, Mercian Hymns

1972 Awards

Novel: Susan Hill, The Bird of Night

Biography: James Pope-Hennessey, Trollope

Children's Book: Rumer Godden, The Diddakoi

1973 Awards

Novel: Shiva Naipaul, The Chip Chip Gatherers

Biography: John Wilson, CB: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman

Children's Book: Alan Aldridge & William Plomer, The Butterfly Ball & The Grasshopper's Feast

1974 Awards

Novel: Iris Murdoch, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine

Biography: Andrew Boyle, Poor Dear Brendan

Joint Children's Books: Russell Hoban & Quentin Blake, How Tom Beat Captain Bjork & His Hired Sportsmen and Jill Paton Walsh, The Emperor's Winding Sheet

First Book: Claire Tomalin, The Life & Death of Mary Wollstonecraft

1975 Awards

Novel: William McIlvanney, Docherty

Autobiography: Helen Corke, In Our Infancy

First Book: Ruth Spalding, The Improbable Puritan: A Life of Bulstrode Whitelock

1976 Awards

Novel: William Trevor, The Children of Dynmouth

Biography: Winifred Gerin, Elizabeth Gaskell

Children's Book: Penelope Lively, A Stitch in Time  (R)

1977 Awards

Novel: Beryl Bainbridge, Energy Time

Biography: Nigel Nicolson, Mary Curzon

Children's Book: Shelagh Macdonald, No End to Yesterday

1978 Awards

Novel: Paul Theroux, Picture Palace

Biography: John Grigg, Lloyd George: The People's Champion

Children's Novel: Philippa Pearce, The Battle of Bubble & Squeak

1979 Awards

Novel: Jennifer Johnston, The Old Jest

Autobiography: About Time, Penelope Mortimer

Children's Novel: Peter Dickinson, Tulku

1980 Awards

Novel: David Lodge, How Far Can You Go?

Biography: David Newsome, On the Edge of Paradise: A.C. Benson the Diarist

Children's Novel: Leon Garfield, John Diamond

1981 Awards

Novel: Maurice Leitch, Silver's City

First Novel: William Boyd, A Good Man in Africa

Biography: Nigel Hamilton, Monty: The Making of a General

Children's Novel: Jane Gardam, The Hollow Land

1982 Awards

Novel: John Wain, Young Shoulders

First Novel: Bruce Chatwin, On the Black Hill

Biography: Edward Crankshaw, Bismarck

Children's Novel: W.J. Corbett, The Song of Pentecost

1983 Awards

Novel: William Trevor, Fools of Fortune

First Novel: John Fuller, Flying to Nowhere

Joint Biography; Victoria Glendinning, Vita and Kenneth Rose, King George V

Children's Novel: Roald Dahl, The Witches

1984 Awards

Novel: Christopher Hope, Kruger's Alp

First Novel: James Buchan, A Parish of Rich Women

Biography: Peter Ackroyd, T.S. Eliot

Short Story: Diane Rowe, Tomorrow is Our Permanent Address

Children's Novel: Barbara Willard, The Queen of the Pharisees' Children

1985 Awards

Novel: Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor

First Novel: Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit   (R)

Biography: Ben Pimlott, Hugh Dalton

Poetry: Douglas Dunn, Elegies

Children's Novel: Janni Howker, The Nature of the Beast

1986 Awards

Novel: Kazuo Ishiguro, An Artist of the Floating World

First Novel: Jim Crace, Continent

Biography: Richard Mabey, Gilbert White

Poetry: Peter Reading, Stet

Children's Novel: Andrew Taylor, The Coal House

1987 Awards

Novel: Ian McEwan, The Child in Time

First Novel: Francis Wyndham, The Other Garden

Biography: Christopher Nolan, Under the Eye of the Clock

Poetry: Seamus Heaney, The Haw Lantern

Children's Novel: Geraldine McCaughrean, A Little Lower than the Angels

1988 Awards

Novel: Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses

First Novel: Paul Sayer, The Comforts of Madness

Biography: A.N. Wilson, Tolstoy

Poetry: Peter Porter, The Automatic Oracle

Children's Novel: Judy Allen, Awaiting Developments

1989 Awards

Novel: Lindsay Clarke, The Chymical Wedding

First Novel: James Hamilton-Paterson, Gerontius

Biography: Richard Holmes, Coleridge: The Early Visions

Poetry: Michael Donaghy, Shibboleth

Children's Novel: Hugh Scott, Why Weeps the Brogan?

1990 Awards

Novel: Nicholas Mosley, Hopeful Monsters

First Novel: Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia

Biography: Ann Thwaite, A.A. Milne: His Life

Poetry: Paul Durcan, Daddy, Daddy

Children's Novel: Peter Dickinson, AK

1991 Awards

Novel: Jane Gardam, The Queen of the Tambourine

First Novel: Gordon Burn, Alma Cogan

Biography: John Richardson, A Life of Picasso

Poetry: Michael Longley, Gorse Fires

Children's Novel: Diana Hendry, Harvey Angell

1992 Awards

Novel: Alasdair Gray, Poor Things

First Novel: Jeff Torrington, Swing Hammer Swing!

Biography: Victoria Glendinning, Trollope

Poetry: Tony Harrison, The Gaze of the Gorgon

Children's Novel: Gillian Cross, The Great Elephant Chase

1993 Awards

Novel: Joan Brady, Theory of War

First Novel: Rachel Cusk, Saving Agnes

Biography: Andrew Motion, Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life

Poetry: Carol Ann Duffy, Mean Time

Children's Novel: Anne Fine, Flour Babies

1994 Awards

Novel: William Trevor, Felicia's Journey   (R)

First Novel: Fred D'Aguiar, The Longest Memory

Biography: Brenda Maddox, D.H. Lawrence: The Married Man

Poetry: James Fenton, Out of Danger

Children's Novel: Geraldine McCaughrean, Gold Dust

1995 Awards

Novel: Salman Rushdie, The Moor's Last Sigh  (shortlisted: Kazuo Ishiguro, The Unconsoled)

First Novel: Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum

Biography: Roy Jenkins, Gladstone (shortlisted: Gitta Sereny, Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth)

Poetry: Bernard O'Donoghue, Gunpowder

Children's Novel: Michael Mopurgo, The Wreck of the Zanzibar

1996 Awards

Novel: Beryl Bainbridge, Every Man for Himself

First Novel: John Lanchester, The Debt to Pleasure

Bigoraphy: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer: A Life

Poetry: Seamus Heaney, The Spirit Level

Children's Book: Anne Fine, The Tulip Touch

1997 Awards

Novel: Jim Crace, Quarantine  (shortlisted: Ian McEwen, Enduring Love   (R))

First Novel: Pauline Melville, The Ventriloquist's Tale

Biography: Graham Robb, Victor Hugo

Poetry: Ted Hughes, Tales from Ovid

Children's Book: Andrew Norriss, Aquila

1998 Awards

Novel: W.G. Sebald, Austerlitz  (R)

Fiction: Justin Cartwright, Leading the Cheers

First Novel: Giles Foden, The Last King of Scotland

Biography: Amanda Foreman, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

Poetry: Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters

Children's Book: David Almond, Skellig  (shortlisted: J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)

1999 Awards

Novel: Rose Tremain, Music and Silence  (shortlisted: Joanne Harris, Chocolat (R)) 

First Novel: Tim Lott, White City Blue

Biography: David Cairns, Berlioz, Volume 2

Poetry: Seamus Heaney, Beowulf

Children's Book: J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

2000 Awards

Novel: Matthew Kneale, English Passengers

First Novel: Zadie Smith, White Teeth

Biography/Autobiography: Lorna Sage, Bad Blood

Poetry: John Burnside, The Asylum Dance

Children's Book: Jamila Gavin, Coram Boy

2001 Awards

Novel: Patrick Neate, Twelve Bar Blues  (Shortlisted: Ian McEwen, Atonement (R))

First Novel: Sid Smith, Something Like a House

Biography: Diane Souhami, Selkirk's Island

Poetry: Selima Hill, Bunny

Children's Book: Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass   (R)

2002 Awards

Novel: Michael Frayn, Spies   (R)

First Novel: Norman Lebrecht, The Song of Names

Biography: Claire Tomalin, Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self

Poetry: Paul Farley, The Ice Age

Children's Book: Hilary McKay, Saffy's Angel

2003 Awards

Novel: Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time  (R)

First Novel: DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little

Biography: D.J. Taylor, Orwell: The Life

Poetry: Don Paterson, Landing Light

Children's Book: David Almond, The Fire-Eaters

2004 Awards

Novel: Andrea Levy, Small Island

First Novel: Susan Fletcher, Eve Green

Biography: John Guy: My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots

Poetry: Michael Simmons Roberts, Corpus

Children's Book: Geraldine McCaughrean, Not the End of the World (Shortlisted: Meg Rosoff, How I Live Now)

2005 Awards

Novel: Ali Smith, The Accidental

First Novel: Tash Aw, The Harmony Silk Factory

Biography: Hilary Spurling, Matisse: The Master

Poetry: Christopher Logue, Cold Calls

Children's Book: Kate Thompson, The New Policeman

2006 Awards

Novel: William Boyd, Restless  (Shortlisted: David Mitchell, Black Swan Green)

First Novel: Stef Penney, The Tenderness of Wolves

Biography: Brian Thompson, Keeping Mum

Poetry: John Haynes, Letter to Patience

Children's Book: Linda Newbery, Set in Stone

2007 Awards

Novel: A.L. Kennedy, Day

First Novel: Catherine O'Flynn, What Was Lost

Biography: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Young Stalin

Poetry: Jean Sprackland, Tilt

Children's Book: Ann Kelley, The Bower Bird (Shortlisted: Marcus Sedgwick, Blood Red Snow White)

2008 Awards

Novel: Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture  (Shortlisted: Chris Cleave, The Other Hand (R))

First Novel: Sadie Jones, The Outcast

Biography: Diana Athill, Somewhere Towards the End

Poetry: Adam Foulds, The Broken World

Children's Book: Michelle Magorian, Just Henry

2009 Awards

Novel: Colm Toibin, Brooklyn  (Shortlisted: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall)

First Novel: Raphael Selbourne, Beauty

Biography: Graham Farmelo, The Strangest Man

Poetry: Christopher Reid, A Scattering

Children's Book: Patrick Ness, The Ask and the Answer

2010 Awards

Novel: Maggie O'Farrell, The Hand That First Held Mine

First Novel: Kishwar Desai, Witness the Night

Biography: Edmund de Waal, The Hare with Amber Eyes

Poetry: Jo Shapcott, Of Mutability

Children's Book: Jason Wallace, Out of Shadows

2011 Awards

Novel: Andrew Miller, Pure  (Shortlisted: Julian Barnes, Sense of An Ending (R))

First Novel: Christie Watson, Tiny Sunbirds Far Away

Biography: Matthew Hollis, Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas

Poetry: Carol Ann Duffy, The Bees

Children's Book: Moira Young, Blood Red Road

2012 Awards

Novel: Hilary Mantel,Bring up the Bodies

First Novel: Francesca Segal, The Innocents

Biography: Mary Talbot & Bryan Talbot, Dotter of Her Father's Eyes (Shortlisted: Artemis Cooper, Patrick Leigh-Fermor An Adventure)

Poetry: Kathleen Jamie, The Overhaul

Children's Book: Sally Gardner, Maggot Moon

2013 Awards

Novel: Kate Atkinson, Life After Life

First Novel: Nathan Filer, The Shock of the Fall

Biography: Lucy Hughes-Hallett, The Pike: Gabriele d'Annunzio, Poet, Seducer, & Preacher of War

Poetry: Michael Symmons Roberts, Drysalter

Children's Book: Chris Riddell, Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse

2014 Awards

First Novel: Emma Healey, Elizabeth is Missing

Novel: Ali Smith, How to be both (Shortlisted: Colm Toibin, Nora Webster)            

Biography: Helen Macdonald, H is for Hawk

Poetry: Jonathan Edwards, My Family and Other Superheroes                  

Children’s Book:  Kate Saunders, Five Children on the Western Front (Shortlisted: Marcus Sedgwick, The Ghosts of Heaven)

2015 Awards

Novel: Kate Atkinson, A God in Ruins 

First Novel: Andrew Michael Hurley, The Loney

Biography: Andrea Wulf, The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt

Poetry: Don Paterson, 40 Sonnets

Children's Book: Frances Hardinge, The Lie Tree

2016 Awards

Novel: Sebastian Barry, Days Without End

First Novel: Francis Spufford, Golden Hill

Biography: Keggie Carew, Dadland: A Journey into Uncharted Territory

Poetry: Alice Oswald, Falling Awake

Children's Book: Brian Conaghan, The Bombs That Brought Us Together.

2017 Awards
Novel: Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
First Novel: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Biography: In the Days of Rain by Rebecca Stott
Poetry: Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore
Children's Book: The Explorer by Katherine Rundell

2018 Awards
Novel: Normal People by Sally Rooney
First Novel: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
Biography: The Cut Out Girl by Bart van Es
Poetry: Assurances by J O Morgan
Children's Book: The Skylarks' War by Hilary McKay

2019 Awards
Novel: Middle England by Jonathan Coe
First Novel: The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins
Biography: The Volunteer: The true story of the resistance hero who infiltrated Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather
Poetry: Flèche by Mary Jean Chan
Children's Book: Asha & the Spirit Bird by Jasbinder Bilan

2020 Shortlist

First novel

• Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen (John Murray Publishers)
• The Family Tree by Sairish Hussain (HQ)
• Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud (Faber)
• All the Water in the World by Karen Raney (Two Roads)

Novel

• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury Publishing)
• Peace Talks by Tim Finch (Bloomsbury Publishing)
• The Less Dead by Denise Mina (Harvill Secker)
• The Mermaid of Black Conch: A Love Story by Monique Roffey (Peepal Tree)

Biography

• The Man in the Red Coat by Julian Barnes (Jonathan Cape)
• Dear Life by Rachel Clarke (Little, Brown)
• The Louder I Will Sing by Lee Lawrence (Sphere)
• Ghost Town: A Liverpool Shadow Play by Jeff Young (Little Toller Books)

Poetry

• The Air Year by Caroline Bird (Carcanet)
• The Historians by Eavan Boland (Carcanet)
• My Darling from the Lions by Rachel Long (Picador)
• Citadel by Martha Sprackland (Pavilion Poetry)

Children’s books

• Wranglestone by Darren Charlton (Little Tiger)
• Voyage of the Sparrowhawk by Natasha Farrant (Faber)
• The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates by Jenny Pearson (Usborne)
• The Great Godden by Meg Rosoff (Bloomsbury Publishing)