Costa Book of the Year
2021 Winner
Complete History
2010s
- 2019The Volunteer — Jack Fairweather
- 2018The Cut Out Girl — Bart van Es
- 2017Inside the Wave — Helen Dunmore
- 2016Days Without End — Sebastian Barry
- 2015The Lie Tree — Frances Hardinge
- 2014H Is for Hawk — Helen Macdonald
- 2013The Shock of the Fall — Nathan Filer
- 2012Bring Up the Bodies — Hilary Mantel
- 2011Pure — Andrew Miller
- 2010Of Mutability — Jo Shapcott
About the Costa Book of the Year
The Costa Book of the Year was the United Kingdom's most prestigious book prize open exclusively to authors who have lived in the UK or Ireland for at least six months. Originally established in 1971 as the Whitbread Book Awards, the prizes were rebranded in 2006 when Costa Coffee became the sponsor. The Costa Book of the Year was selected from five category winners — Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry, and Children's Book — with the overall Book of the Year award given to whichever category winner was judged to be the most outstanding book of the year. The award celebrated accessible, enjoyable, and well-crafted writing, and its criteria explicitly valued readability alongside literary quality, distinguishing it from the Man Booker Prize. The prize for Book of the Year was £30,000, with smaller prizes for each category winner. The awards were given annually in February, following category announcements in January. Past Book of the Year winners include Hilary Mantel (twice), Sebastian Barry, Helen Macdonald (H Is for Hawk), Monique Roffey, and Hannah Lowe. The Costa Book Awards were discontinued in June 2022, with the 2021 awards (won by Hannah Lowe for The Kids) being the last presented. The 50-year run of the awards made it one of the defining prizes of British literary culture.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Authors who had been resident in the UK or Ireland for at least six months were eligible. This distinguished the award from the Booker Prize, which was open to authors from any Commonwealth country.
- The five categories were Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry, and Children's Book. The overall Book of the Year was chosen from the five category winners.
- The Book of the Year winner received £30,000. Category winners who did not win the overall prize received £5,000 each.
- The awards were discontinued in June 2022. The last Book of the Year was awarded in February 2022 to Hannah Lowe for The Kids (2021 award year).
- The awards were originally called the Whitbread Book Awards, established in 1971 and sponsored by Whitbread plc. They were renamed the Costa Book Awards in 2006 when Costa Coffee took over sponsorship.
- A panel of judges evaluated the five category winners and selected the one they judged to be the most outstanding book of the year overall, regardless of category.
- Yes. First Novel winners were eligible for the overall Book of the Year prize, and several first novels won the top honor, including Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum in 1995.