2008 Costa Book Awards

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The Costa Book Awards (before 2006 known as the Whitbread Awards) are among the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary awards.[ citation needed ] 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 2008.

Costa Book Awards annual series of literary awards in five categories

The Costa Book Awards are a set of annual literary awards recognizing English-language books by writers based in Britain and Ireland. They were inaugurated for 1971 publications and known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2006 when Costa Coffee, a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship. The companion Costa Short Story Award was established in 2012.

United Kingdom Country in Europe

The United Kingdom, officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland but more commonly known as the UK or Britain, is a sovereign country lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state‍—‌the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi), the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world. It is also the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.

Contents

The shortlists were announced on 18 November 2008. The winners in each category were announced on 5 January 2009, and the overall winner for Book of the Year was announced on 27 January 2009.

Book of the Year

First Novel

Winner:

Shortlist:

Poppy Adams is a British television documentary director/producer and novelist.

Tom Rob Smith English novelist

Tom Rob Smith is an English writer.

<i>Child 44</i> thriller novel by Tom Rob Smith

Child 44 is a thriller novel by British writer Tom Rob Smith. This is the first novel in a trilogy featuring former MGB Agent Leo Demidov, who investigates a series of gruesome child murders in Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union.

Novel

Winner:

Shortlist:

Chris Cleave British writer

Chris Cleave is a British writer and journalist.

<i>The Other Hand</i> novel Chris Cleave

The Other Hand, also known as Little Bee, is a 2008 novel by British author Chris Cleave. It is a dual narrative story about a Nigerian asylum-seeker and a British magazine editor, who meet during the oil conflict in the Niger Delta, and are re-united in England several years later. Cleave, inspired as a university student by his temporary employment in an asylum detention centre, wrote the book in an attempt to humanise the plight of asylum-seekers in Britain. The novel examines the treatment of refugees by the asylum system, as well as issues of British colonialism, globalization, political violence and personal accountability.

Louis de Bernières English novelist

Louis de Bernières is a British novelist most famous for his fourth novel, Captain Corelli's Mandolin. In 1993 de Bernières was selected as one of the "20 Best of Young British Novelists", part of a promotion in Granta magazine. Captain Corelli's Mandolin was published in the following year, winning the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book. It was also shortlisted for the 1994 Sunday Express Book of the Year. It has been translated into over 11 languages and is an international bestseller.

Biography

Winner:

Shortlist:

<i>Bloomsbury Ballerina</i> 2008 book by British author Judith Mackrell

Bloomsbury Ballerina : Lydia Lopokova, Imperial Dancer and Mrs John Maynard Keynes is a 2008 book by British author Judith Mackrell, first published by the Orion Publishing Group, under the Phoenix imprint. The book was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Book Awards.

Sathnam Sanghera is a British journalist and author.

Poetry

Winner:

Shortlist:

Kathryn Simmonds is a British poet, and short story writer.

Greta Stoddart is an English poet. She is best known for her poetry collections, At Home in the Dark and Salvation Jane.

Children's Book

Winner:

Shortlist:

Saci Lloyd is a British writer.

<i>The Carbon Diaries: 2015</i> book by Saci Lloyd

The Carbon Diaries: 2015 is a 2009 young adult novel written by Saci Lloyd, popular in the United Kingdom.

Jenny Valentine is a British children's novelist. For her first novel and best-known work, Finding Violet Park, she won the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers.

Related Research Articles

The Whitbread Awards (1971–2005), called Costa Book Awards since 2006, are literary awards in the United Kingdom, awarded both for high literary merit but also for works considered enjoyable reading. This page gives details of the awards given in the year 2001.

Sebastian Faulks British journalist and novelist

Sebastian Charles Faulks, is a British novelist, journalist and broadcaster. He is best known for his historical novels set in France – The Girl at the Lion d'Or, Birdsong and Charlotte Gray. He has also published novels with a contemporary setting, most recently A Week in December (2009) and Paris Echo, (2018) and a James Bond continuation novel, Devil May Care (2008), as well as a continuation of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves series, Jeeves and the Wedding Bells (2013). He was a team captain on BBC Radio 4 literary quiz The Write Stuff.

Sebastian Barry is an Irish playwright, novelist and poet. He is noted for his dense literary writing style and is considered one of Ireland's finest writers.

The Costa Book of the Year shortlist was announced on 10 January 2007 and the final results at a ceremony held on 7 February 2007.

The Man, Asian Literary Prize was an annual literary award between 2007 and 2012, given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in the previous calendar year. It is awarded to writers who are citizens or residents of one of the following 34 Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Japan, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, The Maldives, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam. Submissions are invited through publishers who are entitled to each submit two novels by August 31 each year. Entry forms are available from May.

The shortlists were announced on 20 November 2007. The winners in each category were announced on 3 January 2008, and the overall winner for Book of the Year was announced on 22 January 2008.

The Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards (PMLA) were announced at the end of 2007 by the incoming First Rudd Ministry following the 2007 election. They are administered by the Minister for the Arts.

<i>The Secret Scripture</i> book by Sebastian Barry

The Secret Scripture is a 2008 novel written by Irish writer Sebastian Barry.

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.

The Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize is an annual British literary prize inaugurated in 1977. It is named after the host Jewish Quarterly and the prize's founder Harold Hyam Wingate. The award recognizes Jewish and non-Jewish writers resident in the UK, British Commonwealth, Europe and Israel who "stimulate an interest in themes of Jewish concern while appealing to the general reader." As of 2011 the winner receives £4,000.

The Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction is a British literary award founded in 2010. At £25,000, it is one of the largest literary awards in the UK. The award was created by the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, whose ancestors were closely linked to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott, who is generally considered the originator of historical fiction with the novel Waverley in 1814.

<i>Financial Times</i> and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award

Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award is an annual award given to the best business book of the year as determined by the Financial Times and McKinsey & Company. It aims to find the book that has 'the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues'. The award was established in 2005 and is worth £30,000. Beginning in 2010, five short-listed authors each receive £10,000, previously it was £5,000.

The shortlists were announced on 17 November 2010. The winners in each category were announced on 4 January 2011.

The Cezam Prix Litteraire Inter CE is a literary prize which was established in France in 1997. Its judging panel of more than 3600 readers who meet in groups to discuss, critique and individually rate the books, makes it one of the largest adjudicated readers' prizes for literature in the world. It is organised by the French national network of comités d'entreprise.

The shortlists were announced on 16 November 2011. The category winners were announced on 3 January 2012 and the "Book of the Year" winner was announced on 24 January at a ceremony at Quaglino's restaurant in central London.

Womens Prize for Fiction annual prize for a novel written in English by a woman of any nationality

The Women's Prize for Fiction is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes. It is awarded annually to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year.

The Costa Book 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 2012.

The shortlist was announced on 26 November 2013. The category winners were announced 6 January 2014. The Book of the Year was announced 28 January 2014.

The shortlist was announced 17 November 2014. The category winners were announced c. 5 January 2015. The Book of the Year was announced 27 January 2015.

The Costa Book 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 2015.

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