Costa Book Awards 2007

At 8.30pm this evening, the overall winner of the prestigious Costa Book of the Year 2009 will be announced at an awards ceremony in central London.

Be one of the first to find out who picked up the cheque for £30,000 and the coveted title of Costa Book of the Year here at CostaBookAwards.com.

Costa Book Awards 2009 Category Winners Announced!

Costa, the UK's fastest-growing coffee shop chain, has announced the Costa Book Awards 2009 winners in the Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book categories.

Revealed tonight on BBC Radio 4's Front Row programme, they are:

* Irish novelist Colm Tóibin, who beats Hilary Mantel, winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize, to take the Costa Novel Award for Brooklyn
* Raphael Selbourne, who wins the First Novel Award for Beauty, the story of a young Bangladeshi woman on the run from her family, inspired by his experiences of teaching in a deprived area of Wolverhampton
* Debut biographer Graham Farmelo who takes the Biography Award for his work on the pioneer of quantum mechanics, The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius, which the judges called "the most compelling biography of the year"
* Christopher Reid who, having been nominated twice previously, finally claims the Poetry Award for A Scattering, a tribute to his wife following her death in 2005
* Patrick Ness, who wins the Children's Book Award for The Ask and the Answer (Book Two of the Chaos Walking trilogy) which the judges acclaimed as "a major achievement in the making"

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Costa is very pleased to reveal the final judging panel which will select the overall winner of this year's prestigious Costa Book of the Year.

Novelist Josephine Hart will chair a panel which includes writer and model Marie Helvin, actresses Caroline Quentin and Dervla Kirwan, musician, actor and writer, Gary Kemp and ITV News Political Editor Tom Bradby.

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Costa is giving away a complete set of the books shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Book Awards - that's 20 of the year's most enjoyable books in five categories; Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book.

Enter the prize draw now

Costa, the UK's fastest-growing coffee shop chain, has announced the shortlists for the 2009 Costa Book Awards. 

The Costa Book Awards recognise the most enjoyable books in five categories - First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book - published in the last year by writers based in the UK and Ireland. 

This year's Costa Book Awards attracted 592 entries - the second highest-ever number of submissions in one year.

Announced live tonight on BBC Radio 4's Front Row programme, this year's lists include Hilary Mantel, Colm Tóibín, Clive James, William Fiennes and Penelope Lively.

Full details here

We have today announced the judging panels for the 2009 Costa Book Awards.

They include actor and writer Neil Pearson; broadcaster and journalist Fiona Phillips; authors Sandra Howard and Sophie Hannah; writers William Nicholson and Ben Macintyre; and biographer and historian, Robert Lacey.

Full list and details here