The final judging panel selects the overall Costa Book of the Year from the five category Award winners. It comprises a Chairman, an author from each panel and three other people in the public eye who love reading.
In 2007, the Final Judging Panel comprised:
- Joanna Trollope (Chair)
- David Almond
- Danny Danziger
- Vicki Feaver
- Alex James
- Dylan Jones
- Helen Lederer
- Emily Maitlis
- Polly Samson
For full details, see the press release here.
Final Judging Panel Biographies
Joanna Trollope (Chair): Author
Author of eagerly awaited and sparklingly readable novels often centred around the domestic nuances and dilemmas of life in contemporary England, Joanna Trollope is also the author of a number of historical novels and of Britannia's Daughters, a study of women in the British Empire. In 1988 she wrote her first contemporary novel, The Choir, and this was followed by A Village Affair, A Passionate Man, The Rector's Wife, The Men and the Girls, A Spanish Lover, The Best of Friends, Next of Kin, Other People's Children, Marrying the Mistress, Girl from the South, Brother and Sister and Second Honeymoon. Her latest novel, Friday Nights, is out in February 2008. She lives in London and was awarded an OBE for services to literature in 1996.
David Almond: Author (representing the Children's Book Award panel)
David Almond is known worldwide as the author of Skellig, Kit's Wilderness, Clay and many other novels, stories and plays. His work is translated into thirty languages and he has won a string of major awards, including the Carnegie Medal, two Whitbreads, two Smarties Prizes and The Michael L Pritz Award (USA). His latest book, published in Oct 2007, is My Dad's a Birdman. This will be followed next year by The Savage, illustrated by Dave McKean; a new novel, The Foundling; and an opera of Skellig. He lives with his family in Northumberland.
Danny Danziger: Writer and columnist (representing the Biography Award panel)
Danny Danziger is a broadcaster, columnist on the Sunday Times, and an author. His Year 1000 was a number one bestseller and his latest book, which was published this summer in America, is a profile of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Vicki Feaver: Poet and painter (representing the Poetry Award panel)
Vicki Feaver is the author of three poetry collections: Close Relatives (1981); The Handless Maiden (1994), winner of the Heinemann Award and shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize for Best Poetry Collection of the Year; and The Book of Blood which was shortlisted for the 2006 Costa Poetry Award. She is a former tutor of Creative Writing at University College, Chichester, and now lives in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Alex James: Musician, songwriter, artist, journalist, broadcaster and farmer
Alex James is best known as the bass player in the band Blur, who have released eight albums to date, five of which reached number one. He lives with his wife and three young children on his farm in Oxfordshire, which he is converting to organic status. The farm produces award-winning lamb, and "Little Wallop", a goat's cheese which won a silver medal at the 2007 Great British Cheese awards. Alex writes for a number of publications, including a monthly column for Q and a weekly column for the Independent. He is also an Associate Editor of the Spectator. Alex presents "On Your Farm" for BBC Radio 4 and is artist-in-residence at Oxford University's Astrophysics Department. His autobiography, Bit of a Blur, was published in June 2007.
Dylan Jones: Editor British GQ
Dylan Jones is the Editor of British GQ. He studied design and photography at Chelsea School of Art and St. Martins School of Art in London before becoming the Editor of i-D magazine in 1984. He has since been an Editor at The Face, Arena, The Observer and The Sunday Times. He has won the BSME Editor of the Year award four times, once for his work on Arena, and three times for GQ. He has published an international bestselling biography of Jim Morrison (Dark Star), a biography of Paul Smith (True Brit) and two anthologies of journalism (Meaty, Beaty, Big & Bouncy and Sex, Power and Travel). iPod, Therefore I Am was published in 2005, and his latest book, Mr Jones Rules has just been published.
Helen Lederer: Actress and writer (representing the First Novel Award panel)
From the early days at the famous Comedy Store in London, to creating the ?girl at the bar' in BBC's Naked Video, not to mention becoming Catriona, the ditzy journalist in Absolutely Fabulous, Helen has enjoyed the unique position of having starred in most top TV comedy and radio shows. Her theatre experience includes following hot on the heels of Julie Walters in Educating Rita, playing Doreen in Alan Bleasdale's Having a Ball, and performing in London's West End The Vagina Monologues. She is also a sought-after columnist and her work regularly appears in a variety of national press including Woman & Home, EVE, Independent Magazine, Mail on Sunday and Telegraph. Helen is currently developing a sitcom for BBC-2, a comedy novel and a number of TV projects.
Emily Maitlis: BBC News Presenter
Emily Maitlis presents Newsnight on BBC-2, news bulletins on BBC-1 and rolling news coverage on News 24. She has also worked alongside David Dimbleby to host Election coverage specials and the Budget and was recently nominated for an RTS award. She previously worked at BBC London News, London's flagship news programme on BBC-1. Before joining the BBC she worked for Sky News in this country, and for NBC News in Hong Kong, as a business correspondent. Emily has also written for The Guardian and The Spectator, for whom she is now a Contributing Editor. She lives in West London with her husband and two sons.
Polly Samson: Author and lyricist (representing the Novel Award panel)
Polly Samson's novel, Out of the Picture and short story collection Lying in Bed are published by Virago. She has written lyrics for The Division Bell (Pink Floyd) and On an Island (David Gilmour). Her first career was in publishing and she became a Director of Jonathan Cape in 1988. For several years she wrote features and a weekly column for the Sunday Times. She has also written for BBC Radio 4. She writes occasional features and reviews, most recently in The Guardian.