2009 Costa Book Awards

The Costa Book Awards (before 2006 known as the Whitbread Awards) are among the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary awards. They were launched in 1971, are given both for high literary merit but also for works that are enjoyable reading and whose aim is to convey the enjoyment of reading to the widest possible audience. This page gives details of the awards given in the year 2009.

The shortlists were announced on 25 November 2009. The winners in each category were announced on 4 January 2010 on the BBC Radio 4 Front Row programme.

Book of the Year

Winner:

• Christopher Reid, A Scattering

Children's Book

Winner:

• Patrick Ness, The Ask and the Answer

Shortlist:

• Siobhan Dowd, Solace of the Road
• Mary Hoffman, Troubadour
• Anna Perera, Guantanamo Boy

First Novel

Winner:

• Raphael Selbourne, Beauty

Shortlist:

• Rachel Heath, The Finest Type of English Womanhood
• Peter Murphy, John the Revelator
• Ali Shaw, The Girl with Glass Feet

Novel

Winner:

• Colm Tóibín, Brooklyn

Shortlist:

• Penelope Lively, Family Album
• Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
• Christopher Nicholson, The Elephant Keeper

Biography

Winner:

• Graham Farmelo, The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius

Shortlist:

• William Fiennes, The Music Room
• Simon Gray, Coda
• Caroline Moorehead, Dancing to the Precipice

Poetry

Winner:

• Christopher Reid, A Scattering

Shortlist:

• Clive James, Angels Over Elsinore
• Katharine Kilalea, One Eye'd Leigh'
• Ruth Padel, Darwin: A Life in Poems

References

• Previous winners