ShelfEvidentCosta 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
2000s
- 2009The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius — Graham Farmelo
- 2009A Scattering — Christopher Reid
- 2009The Ask and the Answer — Patrick Ness
- 2009Beauty — Raphael Selbourne
- 2009Brooklyn — Colm Tóibín
- 2009A Scattering — Christopher Reid
- 2008Somewhere Towards the End — Diana Athill
- 2008The Secret Scripture — Sebastian Barry
- 2008Just Henry — Michelle Magorian
- 2008The Outcast — Sadie Jones
- 2008The Secret Scripture — Sebastian Barry
- 2008The Broken Word — Adam Foulds
- 2007Young Stalin — Simon Sebag Montefiore
- 2007Day — A.L. Kennedy
- 2007The Bower Bird — Ann Kelley
- 2007What Was Lost — Catherine O'Flynn
- 2007Day — A.L. Kennedy
- 2007Tilt — Jean Sprackland
- 2006Keeping Mum — Brian Thompson
- 2006The Tenderness of Wolves — Stef Penney
- 2006Set in Stone — Linda Newbery
- 2006The Tenderness of Wolves — Stef Penney
- 2006Restless — William Boyd
- 2006Letter to Patience — John Haynes
- 2005Matisse the Master — Hilary Spurling
- 2005Matisse the Master — Hilary Spurling
- 2005The New Policeman — Kate Thompson
- 2005The Harmony Silk Factory — Tash Aw
- 2005The Accidental — Ali Smith
- 2005Cold Calls — Christopher Logue
- 2004My Heart Is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots — John Guy
- 2004Small Island — Andrea Levy
- 2004Not the End of the World — Geraldine McCaughrean
- 2004Eve Green — Susan Fletcher
- 2004Small Island — Andrea Levy
- 2004Corpus — Michael Symmons Roberts
- 2003Orwell: The Life — DJ Taylor
- 2003The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time — Mark Haddon
- 2003The Fire-Eaters — David Almond
- 2003Vernon God Little — DBC Pierre
- 2003The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time — Mark Haddon
- 2003Landing Light — Don Paterson
- 2002Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self — Claire Tomalin
- 2002Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self — Claire Tomalin
- 2002Saffy's Angel — Hilary McKay
- 2002The Song of Names — Norman Lebrecht
- 2002Spies — Michael Frayn
- 2002The Ice Age — Paul Farley
- 2001Selkirk's Island — Diana Souhami
- 2001The Amber Spyglass — Philip Pullman
- 2001The Amber Spyglass — Philip Pullman
- 2001Something Like A House — Sid Smith
- 2001Twelve Bar Blues — Patrick Neate
- 2001Bunny — Selima Hill
- 2000Bad Blood – A Memoir — Lorna Sage
- 2000English Passengers — Matthew Kneale
- 2000Coram Boy — Jamila Gavin
- 2000White Teeth — Zadie Smith
- 2000English Passengers — Matthew Kneale
- 2000The Asylum Dance — John Burnside
1990s
- 1999Berlioz Volume Two: Servitude and Greatness — David Cairns
- 1999Beowulf: A New Verse Translation — Seamus Heaney
- 1999Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban — J.K. Rowling
- 1999White City Blue — Tim Lott
- 1999Music and Silence — Rose Tremain
- 1999Beowulf: A New Verse Translation — Seamus Heaney
- 1998Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire — Amanda Foreman
- 1998Birthday Letters — Ted Hughes
- 1998Skellig — David Almond
- 1998The Last King of Scotland — Giles Foden
- 1998Leading the Cheers — Justin Cartwright
- 1998Birthday Letters — Ted Hughes
- 1997Victor Hugo — Graham Robb
- 1997Tales from Ovid — Ted Hughes
- 1997Aquila — Andrew Norriss
- 1997The Ventriloquist's Tale — Pauline Melville
- 1997Quarantine — Jim Crace
- 1997Tales from Ovid — Ted Hughes
- 1996Thomas Cranmer: A Life — Diarmaid MacCulloch
- 1996The Spirit Level — Seamus Heaney
- 1996The Tulip Touch — Anne Fine
- 1996The Debt to Pleasure — John Lanchester
- 1996Every Man for Himself — Beryl Bainbridge
- 1996The Spirit Level — Seamus Heaney
- 1995Gladstone — Roy Jenkins
- 1995Behind the Scenes at the Museum — Kate Atkinson
- 1995The Wreck of the Zanzibar — Michael Morpurgo
- 1995Behind the Scenes at the Museum — Kate Atkinson
- 1995The Moor's Last Sigh — Salman Rushdie
- 1995Gunpowder — Bernard O'Donoghue
- 1994D H Lawrence: The Married Man — Brenda Maddox
- 1994Felicia's Journey — William Trevor
- 1994Gold Dust — Geraldine McCaughrean
- 1994The Longest Memory — Fred D'Aguiar
- 1994Felicia's Journey — William Trevor
- 1994Out of Danger — James Fenton
- 1993Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life — Andrew Motion
- 1993Theory of War — Joan Brady
- 1993Flour Babies — Anne Fine
- 1993Saving Agnes — Rachel Cusk
- 1993Theory of War — Joan Brady
- 1993Mean Time — Carol Ann Duffy
- 1992Trollope — Victoria Glendinning
- 1992Swing Hammer Swing! — Jeff Torrington
- 1992The Great Elephant Chase — Gillian Cross
- 1992Swing Hammer Swing! — Jeff Torrington
- 1992Poor Things — Alasdair Gray
- 1992The Gaze of the Gorgon — Tony Harrison
- 1991A Life of Picasso — John Richardson
- 1991A Life of Picasso — John Richardson
- 1991Harvey Angell — Diana Hendry
- 1991Alma Cogan — Gordon Burn
- 1991The Queen of the Tambourine — Jane Gardam
- 1991Gorse Fires — Michael Longley
- 1990AA Milne – His Life — Ann Thwaite
- 1990Hopeful Monsters — Nicholas Mosley
- 1990AK — Peter Dickinson
- 1990The Buddha of Suburbia — Hanif Kureishi
- 1990Hopeful Monsters — Nicholas Mosley
- 1990Daddy, Daddy — Paul Durcan
1980s
- 1989Coleridge: Early Visions — Richard Holmes
- 1989Coleridge: Early Visions — Richard Holmes
- 1989Why Weeps the Brogan — Hugh Scott
- 1989Gerontius — James Hamilton-Paterson
- 1989The Chymical Wedding — Lindsay Clarke
- 1989Shibboleth — Michael Donaghy
- 1988Tolstoy — A. N. Wilson
- 1988The Comforts of Madness — Paul Sayer
- 1988Awaiting Developments — Judy Allen
- 1988The Comforts of Madness — Paul Sayer
- 1988The Satanic Verses — Salman Rushdie
- 1988The Automatic Oracle — Peter Porter
- 1987Under the Eye of the Clock — Christopher Nolan
- 1987Under the Eye of the Clock — Christopher Nolan
- 1987A Little Lower than the Angels — Geraldine McCaughrean
- 1987The Other Garden — Francis Wyndham
- 1987The Child in Time — Ian McEwan
- 1987The Haw Lantern — Seamus Heaney
- 1986Gilbert White — Richard Mabey
- 1986An Artist of the Floating World — Kazuo Ishiguro
- 1986The Coal House — Andrew Taylor
- 1986Continent — Jim Crace
- 1986An Artist of the Floating World — Kazuo Ishiguro
- 1986Stet — Peter Reading
- 1985Hugh Dalton — Ben Pimlott
- 1985Elegies — Douglas Dunn
- 1985The Nature of the Beast — Janni Howker
- 1985Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit — Jeanette Winterson
- 1985Hawksmoor — Peter Ackroyd
- 1985Elegies — Douglas Dunn
- 1984T. S. Eliot — Peter Ackroyd
- 1984The Queen of the Pharisees' Children — Barbara Willard
- 1984A Parish of Rich Women — James Buchan
- 1984Kruger's Alp — Christopher Hope
- 1983Vita — Victoria Glendinning
- 1983The Witches — Roald Dahl
- 1983Flying to Nowhere — John Fuller
- 1983Fools of Fortune — William Trevor
- 1982Bismarck — Edward Crankshaw
- 1982The Song of Pentecost — W. J. Corbett
- 1982On the Black Hill — Bruce Chatwin
- 1982Young Shoulders — John Wain
- 1981Monty: The Making of a General — Nigel Hamilton
- 1981The Hollow Land — Jane Gardam
- 1981A Good Man in Africa — William Boyd
- 1981Silver's City — Maurice Leitch
- 1980On the Edge of Paradise: A. C. Benson, Diarist — David Newsome
- 1980How Far Can You Go — David Lodge
- 1980John Diamond — Leon Garfield
- 1980How Far Can You Go — David Lodge
1970s
- 1979About Time — Penelope Mortimer
- 1979Tulku — Peter Dickinson
- 1979The Old Jest — Jennifer Johnston
- 1978Lloyd George: The People's Champion — John Grigg
- 1978The Battle of Bubble & Squeak — Philippa Pearce
- 1978Picture Palace — Paul Theroux
- 1977Mary Curzon — Nigel Nicolson
- 1977No End to Yesterday — Shelagh Macdonald
- 1977Injury Time — Beryl Bainbridge
- 1976Elizabeth Gaskell — Winifred Gerin
- 1976A Stitch in Time — Penelope Lively
- 1976The Children of Dynmouth — William Trevor
- 1975In Our Infancy — Helen Corke
- 1975The Improbable Puritan: A Life of Bulstrode Whitelocke — Ruth Spalding
- 1975Docherty — William McIlvanney
- 1974Poor Dear Brendan — Andrew Boyle
- 1974How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen — Russell Hoban and Quentin Blake
- 1974The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft — Claire Tomalin
- 1974The Sacred and Profane Love Machine — Iris Murdoch
- 1973CB: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman — John Wilson
- 1973The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast — Alan Aldridge and William Plomer
- 1973The Chip-Chip Gatherers — Shiva Naipaul
- 1972Anthony Trollope — James Pope-Hennessy
- 1972The Diddakoi — Rumer Godden
- 1972The Bird of Night — Susan Hill
- 1971Henrik Ibsen — Michael Meyer
- 1971The Destiny Waltz — Gerda Charles
- 1971Mercian Hymns — Geoffrey Hill
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.