For British authors and poets writing in English, one of the most prestigious awards are the Costa Prizes. This year, the winner was Inside The Wave, a collection of poetry by the late Helen Dunmore.
The Costa Book Awards have been running since 1971 and were then known as the Whitbread Book Awards. In 2006, they gained their current title when Whitbread subsidiary, Costa took over sponsorship duties.
Go deeper with GlobalData
The idea of the awards is to celebrate English-language literature written by writers based in Britain or Ireland. However, unlike the Booker Prize which also celebrates English-language literature published in the UK, the Costa Book Awards are designed to celebrate works that are enjoyable to read and accessible to a wide audience. Thus, the Costa Prize is considered more populist than the Booker Prize.
The awards are made up of five categories: Novel, First novel, Children’s book, Poetry, Biography. A winner is chosen in each category, then of those, an overall winner is selected.
The prize is £5,000 for winning authors in each category and £25,000 for the overall winner.
Judges for the awards are a collection of writers, cultural critics, and minor celebrities.
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalData2018 Costa Prize winners
The main winner of the Costa Book Awards 2018 is Helen Dunmore for her poetry collection, Inside The Wave. The win represents only the second time the award has ever been given posthumously. Dunmore wrote the poetry collection in the last weeks of her life preceding her death by cancer in June 2017.
The poetry collection considers the themes of cancer and death. One of the poems contained within, Hold Out Your Arms, was written just ten days before Dunmore died.
Despite its melancholy subject matter though, the collection is said to be very joyful and life-affirming. Chair of the judges, Wendy Holden said:
“Even though it was written while she was dying, it was very life affirming. Even people who didn’t normally read poetry thought it was a fantastic collection. It is incredibly moving, and by an author at the top of her game.
“Some of the poems are written from her hospital bed, but even those are very uplifting. They don’t need to be upbeat and jolly. Most of them have a lot to say about how we live, who she was, who we are … they speak to all of us. It is impossible to read it and not get something from it. It is great to give a collection of poetry this great prize.”
Costa also produced a short video interviewing Dunmore’s son, Patrick Charnley and some of the other celebrity judges at the event:
The other winners this year were as follows:
- Novel – Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
- First Novel – Emily Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
- Children’s Book – The Explorer by Katherine Rundell
- Biography – In The Days Of Rain by Rebecca Stott
The favourite for the year was Emily Oliphant Is Completely Fine. Gail Honeyman’s debut has already made headlines after Reese Witherspoon’s production company, Hello Sunshine, announced it will be producing a film adaption.
Past winners of the Costa Book Awards
Dunmore is only the latest in a long line of Costa Book Award winners. The full list of winners can be found below:
Novel winners
1971 – The Destiny Waltz – Gerda Charles
1972 – The Bird of Night – Susan Hill
1973 – The Chip-Chip Gatherers – Shiva Naipaul
1974 – The Sacred and Profane Love Machine – Iris Murdoch
1975 – Docherty – William McIlvanney
1976 – The Children of Dynmouth – William Trevor
1977 – Injury Time – Beryl Bainbridge
1978 – Picture Palace – Paul Theroux
1979 – The Old Jest – Jennifer Johnston
1980 – How Far Can You Go – David Lodge
1981 – Silver’s City – Maurice Leitch
1982 – Young Shoulders – John Wain
1983 – Fools of Fortune – William Trevor
1984 – Kruger’s Alp – Christopher Hope
1985 – Hawksmoor – Peter Ackroyd
1986 – An Artist of the Floating World – Kazuo Ishiguro
1987 – The Child in Time – Ian McEwan
1988 – The Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie
1989 – The Chymical Wedding – Lindsay Clarke*
1990 – Hopeful Monsters – Nicholas Mosley
1991 – The Queen of the Tambourine – Jane Gardam
1992 – Poor Things – Alasdair Gray
1993 – Theory of War – Joan Brady
1994 – Felicia’s Journey – William Trevor
1995 – The Moor’s Last Sigh – Salman Rushdie
1996 – Every Man for Himself – Beryl Bainbridge
1997 – Quarantine – Jim Crace
1998 – Leading the Cheers – Justin Cartwright
1999 – Music and Silence – Rose Tremain
2000 – English Passengers – Matthew Kneale
2001 – Twelve Bar Blues – Patrick Neate
2002 – Spies – Michael Frayn
2003 – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
2004 – Small Island – Andrea Levy
2005 – The Accidental – Ali Smith
2006 – Restless – William Boyd
2007 – Day – A.L. Kennedy
2008 – The Secret Scripture – Sebastian Barry
2009 – Brooklyn – Colm Tóibin
2010 – The Hand That First Held Mine – Maggie O’Farrell
2011 – Pure – Andrew Miller
2012 – Bring up the Bodies – Hilary Mantel
2013 – Life after Life – Kate Atkinson
2014 – How to Be Both – Ali Smith
2015 – A God in Ruins – Kate Atkinson
2016 – Days Without End – Sebastian Barry
*Originally, that year’s prize was awarded to Alexander Stuart’s The War Zone. The book was stripped of the prize due to fury among the judging panel.
First novel winners
1974 – The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft – Claire Tomalin
1975 – The Improbable Puritan: A Life of Bulstrode Whitelocke – Ruth Spalding
1981 – A Good Man in Africa – William Boyd
1982 – On the Black Hill – Bruce Chatwin
1983 – Flying to Nowhere – John Fuller
1984 – A Parish of Rich Women – James Buchan
1985 – Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson
1986 – Continent – Jim Crace
1987 – The Other Garden – Francis Wyndham
1988 – The Comforts of Madness – Paul Sayer
1989 – Gerontius – James Hamilton-Paterson
1990 – The Buddha of Suburbia – Hanif Kureishi
1991 – Alma Cogan – Gordon Burn
1992 – Swing Hammer Swing! – Jeff Torrington
1993 – Saving Agnes – Rachel Cusk
1994 – The Longest Memory – Fred D’Aguiar
1995 – Behind the Scenes at the Museum – Kate Atkinson
1996 – The Debt to Pleasure – John Lanchester
1997 – The Ventriloquist’s Tale – Pauline Melville
1998 – The Last King of Scotland – Giles Foden
1999 – White City Blue – Tim Lott
2000 – White Teeth – Zadie Smith
2001 – Something Like A House – Sid Smith
2002 – The Song of Names – Norman Lebrecht
2003 – Vernon God Little – DBC Pierre
2004 – Eve Green – Susan Fletcher
2005 – The Harmony Silk Factory – Tash Aw
2006 – The Tenderness of Wolves – Stef Penney
2007 – What Was Lost – Catherine O’Flynn
2008 – The Outcast – Sadie Jones
2009 – The New Policeman – Kate Thompson
2010 – Witness the Night – Kishwar Desai
2011 – Tiny Sunbirds Far Away – Christie Watson
2012 – The Innocents – Francesca Segal
2013 – The Shock of the Fall – Nathan Filer
2014 – Elizabeth is Missing – Emma Healey
2015 – The Loney – Andrew Michael Hurley
2016 – Golden Hill – Francis Spufford
Children’s Book
1972 – The Diddakoi – Rumer Godden
1973 – The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast – Alan Aldridge and William Plomer
1974 – How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen – Russell Hoban and Quentin Blake
1974 – The Emperor’s Winding Sheet – Jill Paton Welsh
1976 – A Stitch in Time – Penelope Lively
1977 – No End to Yesterday – Shelagh Macdonald
1978 – The Battle of Bubble & Squeak – Philippa Pearce
1979 – Tulku – Peter Dickinson
1980 – John Diamond – Leon Garfield
1981 – The Hollow Land – Jane Gardam
1982 – The Song of Pentecost – W. J. Corbett
1983 – The Witches – Roald Dahl
1984 – The Queen of the Pharisees’ Children – Barbara Willard
1985 – The Nature of the Beast – Janni Howker
1986 – The Coal House – Andrew Taylor
1987 – A Little Lower than the Angels – Geraldine McCaughrean
1988 – Awaiting Developments – Judy Allen
1989 – Why Weeps the Brogan – Hugh Scott
1990 – AK – Peter Dickinson
1991 – Harvey Angell – Diana Hendry
1992 – The Great Elephant Chase – Gillian Cross
1993 – Flour Babies – Anne Fine
1994 – Gold Dust – Geraldine McCaughrean
1995 – The Wreck of the Zanzibar – Michael Morpurgo
1996 – The Tulip Touch – Anne Fine
1997 – Aquila – Andrew Norriss
1998 – Skellig – David Almond
1999 – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J.K. Rowling
2000 – Coram Boy – Jamila Gavin
2001 – The Amber Spyglass – Philip Pullman
2002 – Saffy’s Angel – Hilary McKay
2003 – The Fire-Eaters – David Almond
2004 – Not the End of the World – Geraldine McCaughrean
2005 – The New Policeman – Kate Thompson
2006 – Set in Stone – Linda Newbery
2007 – The Bower Bird – Ann Kelley
2008 – Just Henry – Michelle Magorian
2009 – The Ask and the Answer – Patrick Ness
2010 – Out of Shadows – Jason Wallace
2011 – Blood Red Road – Moira Young
2012 – Maggot Moon – Sally Gardner
2013 – Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse – Chris Riddell
2014 – Five Children on the Western Front – Kate Saunders
2015 – The Lie Tree – Frances Hardinge
2016 – The Bombs That Brought Us Together – Brian Conaghan
Poetry
1971 – Mercian Hymns – Geoffrey Hill
1985 – Elegies – Douglas Dunn
1986 – Stet – Peter Reading
1987 – The Haw Lantern – Seamus Heaney
1988 – The Automatic Oracle – Peter Porter
1989 – Shibboleth – Michael Donaghy
1990 – Daddy, Daddy – Paul Durcan
1991 – Gorse Fires – Michael Longley
1992 – The Gaze of the Gorgon – Tony Harrison
1993 – Mean Time – Carol Ann Duffy
1994 – Out of Danger – James Fenton
1995 – Gunpowder – Bernard O’Donoghue
1996 – The Spirit Level – Seamus Heaney
1997 – Tales from Ovid – Ted Hughes
1998 – Birthday Letters – Ted Hughes
1999 – Beowulf – Seamus Heaney
2000 – The Asylum Dance John Burnside
2001 – Bunny – Selima Hill
2002 – The Ice Age – Paul Farley
2003 – Landing Light – Don Paterson
2004 – Corpus – Michael Symmons Roberts
2005 – Cold Calls – Christopher Logue
2006 – Letter to Patience – John Haynes
2007 – Tilt – Jean Sprackland
2008 – The Broken Word – Adam Foulds
2009 – A Scattering – Christopher Reid
2010 – Of Mutability – Jo Shapcott
2011 – The Bees – Carol Ann Duffy
2012 – The Overhaul – Kathleen Jamie
2013 – Drysalter – Michael Symmons Roberts
2014 – My Family and Other Superheroes – Jonathan Edwards
2015 – 40 Sonnets – Don Paterson
2016 – Falling Awake – Alice Oswald
Biography
1971 – Henrik Ibsen – Michael Meyer
1972 – Anthony Trollope – James Pope-Hennessy
1973 – CB: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman – John Wilson
1974 – Poor Dear Brendan – Andrew Boyle
1975 – In Our Infancy – Helen Corke
1976 – Elizabeth Gaskell – Winifred Gerin
1977 – Mary Curzon – Nigel Nicolson
1978 – Lloyd George: The People’s Champion – John Grigg
1979 – About Time – Penelope Mortimer
1980 – On the Edge of Paradise: A. C. Benson, Diarist – David Newsome
1981 – Monty: The Making of a General – Nigel Hamilton
1982 – Bismark – Edward Crankshaw
1983 – Vita – Victoria Glendinning
1983 – King George V – Kenneth Rose
1984 – T. S. Eliot – Peter Ackroyd
1985 – Hugh Dalton – Ben Pimlott
1986 – Gilbert White – Richard Mabey
1987 – Under the Eye of the Clock – Christopher Nolan
1988 – Tolstoy – A. N. Wilson
1989 – Coleridge: Early Visions – Richard Holmes
1990 – AA Milne – His Life – Ann Thwaite
1991 – A Life of Picasso – John Richardson
1992 – Trollope – Victoria Glendinning
1993 – Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life – Andrew Motion
1994 – D H Lawrence: The Married Man – Brenda Maddox
1995 – Gladstone – Roy Jenkins
1996 – Thomas Cranmer: A Life – Diarmaid MacCulloch
1997 – Victor Hugo – Graham Robb
1998 – Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire – Amanda Foreman
1999 – Berlioz Volume Two: Servitude and Greatness – David Cairns
2000 – Bad Blood – A Memoir – Lorna Sage
2001 – Selkirk’s Island – Diana Souhamiv
2002 – Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self – Claire Tomalin
2003 – Orwell: The Life – DJ Taylor
2004 – My Heart Is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots – John Guy
2005 – Matisse the Master – Hilary Spurling
2006 – Keeping Mum – Brian Thompson
2007 – Young Stalin – Simon Sebag Montefiore
2008 – Somewhere Towards the End – Diana Athill
2009 – The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius – Graham Farmelo
2010 – The Hare with Amber Eyes – Edmund de Waal
2011 – Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas – Matthew Hollis
2012 – Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes – Mary Talbot and Bryan Talbot
2013 – The Pike – Lucy Hughes-Hallet
2014 – H is for Hawk – Helen Macdonald
2015 – The Invention of Nature – Andrea Wulf
2016 – Dadland: A Journey into Uncharted Territory – Keggie Carew
