Living Canon

Costa Book Awards

The Costa Book Awards (formerly Whitbread Book Awards) were presented annually from 1971 to 2019, honoring outstanding books in five categories: Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry, and Children’s Book. A Book of the Year was also chosen from the category winners.

• Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller

  2021CostaNovel
• The Kids by Hannah Lowe

  2021CostaPoetry
• The Crossing by Manjeet Mann

  2021CostaChildren's
• 
  Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

  2021CostaFirst Novel
• Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John Preston

  2021CostaBiography
• Voyage of the Sparrowhawk by Natasha Farrant

  2020CostaChildren's
• The Person Who Serves, Serves Again by Tessa Sheridan

  2020CostaShort Story
• The Mermaid of Black Conch: A Love Story by Monique Roffey

  2020CostaNovel
• The Louder I Will Sing by Lee Lawrence

  2020CostaBiography
• 
  The Historians by Eavan Boland

  2020CostaPoetry
• 
  Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud

  2020CostaFirst Novel
• The Volunteer by Jack Fairweather

  2019CostaBiography
• The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins

  2019CostaFirst Novel
• Middle England by Jonathan Coe

  2019CostaNovel
• Flèche by Mary Jean Chan

  2019CostaPoetry
• Asha & the Spirit Bird by Jasbinder Bilan

  2019CostaChildren's
• 
  The Skylarks' War by Hilary McKay

  2018CostaChildren's
• 
  The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

  2018CostaFirst Novel
• The Cut Out Girl: A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found by Bart van Es

  2018CostaBiography
• 
  Normal People by Sally Rooney

  2018CostaNovel
• Assurances by J. O. Morgan

  2018CostaPoetry
• 
  The Explorer by Katherine Rundell

  2017CostaChildren's
• 
  Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor

  2017CostaNovel
• 
  Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore

  2017CostaPoetry
• In the Days of Rain by Rebecca Stott

  2017CostaBiography
• 
  Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

  2017CostaFirst Novel
• 
  The Bombs That Brought Us Together by Brian Conaghan

  2016CostaChildren's
• 
  Golden Hill by Francis Spufford

  2016CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Falling Awake by Alice Oswald

  2016CostaPoetry
• Dirty Little Fishes by Jess Kidd

  2016CostaShort Story
• 
  Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

  2016CostaNovel
• Dadland: A Journey into Uncharted Territory by Keggie Carew

  2016CostaBiography
• 
  The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley

  2015CostaFirst Novel
• The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge

  2015CostaChildren's
• 
  The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf

  2015CostaBiography
• Rogey by Danny Murphy

  2015CostaShort Story
• 
  A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

  2015CostaNovel
• 40 Sonnets by Don Paterson

  2015CostaPoetry
• 
  My Family and Other Superheroes by Jonathan Edwards

  2014CostaPoetry
• 
  How to Be Both by Ali Smith

  2014CostaNovel
• 
  H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

  2014CostaBiography
• 
  Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders

  2014CostaChildren's
• Fishskin, Hareskin by Zoe Gilbert

  2014CostaShort Story
• 
  Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey

  2014CostaFirst Novel
• 
  The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

  2013CostaFirst Novel
• 
  The Pike by Lucy Hughes-Hallett

  2013CostaBiography
• The Keeper of the Jackalopes by Angela Readman

  2013CostaShort Story
• 
  Life after Life by Kate Atkinson

  2013CostaNovel
• Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse by Chris Riddell

  2013CostaChildren's
• 
  Drysalter by Michael Symmons Roberts

  2013CostaPoetry
• 
  The Overhaul by Kathleen Jamie

  2012CostaPoetry
• 
  The Innocents by Francesca Segal

  2012CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Millie and Bird by Avril Joy

  2012CostaShort Story
• 
  Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner

  2012CostaChildren's
• 
  Dotter of Her Father's Eyes by Mary Talbot and Bryan Talbot

  2012CostaBiography
• Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

  2012CostaNovel
• 
  Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson

  2011CostaFirst Novel
• 
  The Bees by Carol Ann Duffy

  2011CostaPoetry
• 
  Pure by Andrew Miller

  2011CostaNovel
• Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas

  2011CostaBiography
• Blood Red Road by Moira Young

  2011CostaChildren's
• 
  Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai

  2010CostaFirst Novel
• 
  The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal

  2010CostaBiography
• The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell

  2010CostaNovel
• 
  Out of Shadows by Jason Wallace

  2010CostaChildren's
• 
  Of Mutability by Jo Shapcott

  2010CostaPoetry
• 
  The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius by Graham Farmelo

  2009CostaBiography
• 
  The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness

  2009CostaChildren's
• 
  Brooklyn by Colm Tóibin

  2009CostaNovel
• 
  Beauty by Raphael Selbourne

  2009CostaFirst Novel
• A Scattering by Christopher Reid

  2009CostaPoetry
• 
  The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

  2008CostaNovel
• The Outcast by Sadie Jones

  2008CostaFirst Novel
• 
  The Broken Word by Adam Foulds

  2008CostaPoetry
• 
  Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill

  2008CostaBiography
• 
  Just Henry by Michelle Magorian

  2008CostaChildren's
• 
  Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore

  2007CostaBiography
• 
  What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn

  2007CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Tilt by Jean Sprackland

  2007CostaPoetry
• 
  The Bower Bird by Ann Kelley

  2007CostaChildren's
• Day by A.L. Kennedy

  2007CostaNovel
• 
  The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney

  2006CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Set in Stone by Linda Newbery

  2006CostaChildren's
• 
  Restless by William Boyd

  2006CostaNovel
• 
  Letter to Patience by John Haynes

  2006CostaPoetry
• 
  Keeping Mum by Brian Thompson

  2006CostaBiography
• 
  The New Policeman by Kate Thompson

  2005CostaChildren's
• 
  The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw

  2005CostaFirst Novel
• 
  The Accidental by Ali Smith

  2005CostaNovel
• 
  Matisse the Master by Hilary Spurling

  2005CostaBiography
• Cold Calls by Christopher Logue

  2005CostaPoetry
• 
  Small Island by Andrea Levy

  2004CostaNovel
• 
  Not the End of the World by Geraldine McCaughrean

  2004CostaChildren's
• 
  My Heart Is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots by John Guy

  2004CostaBiography
• 
  Eve Green by Susan Fletcher

  2004CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Corpus by Michael Symmons Roberts

  2004CostaPoetry
• Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre

  2003CostaFirst Novel
• 
  The Fire-Eaters by David Almond

  2003CostaChildren's
• 
  The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

  2003CostaNovel
• 
  Orwell: The Life by DJ Taylor

  2003CostaBiography
• Landing Light (poetry collection) by Don Paterson

  2003CostaPoetry
• 
  The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht

  2002CostaFirst Novel
• 
  The Ice Age by Paul Farley

  2002CostaPoetry
• 
  Spies by Michael Frayn

  2002CostaNovel
• 
  Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self by Claire Tomalin

  2002CostaBiography
• 
  Saffy's Angel by Hilary McKay

  2002CostaChildren's
• 
  Twelve Bar Blues by Patrick Neate

  2001CostaNovel
• 
  The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

  2001CostaChildren's
• 
  Something Like A House by Sid Smith

  2001CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Selkirk's Island by Diana Souhami

  2001CostaBiography
• 
  Bunny by Selima Hill

  2001CostaPoetry
• 
  White Teeth by Zadie Smith

  2000CostaFirst Novel
• 
  The Asylum Dance by John Burnside

  2000CostaPoetry
• 
  English Passengers by Matthew Kneale

  2000CostaNovel
• 
  Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin

  2000CostaChildren's
• 
  Bad Blood– A Memoir

  2000CostaBiography
• White City Blue by Tim Lott

  1999CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Music and Silence by Rose Tremain

  1999CostaNovel
• 
  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

  1999CostaChildren's
• 
  Berlioz Volume Two: Servitude and Greatness by David Cairns

  1999CostaBiography
• 
  Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney

  1999CostaPoetry
• 
  The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden

  1998CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Skellig by David Almond

  1998CostaChildren's
• 
  Leading the Cheers by Justin Cartwright

  1998CostaNovel
• 
  Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman

  1998CostaBiography
• 
  Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes

  1998CostaPoetry
• 
  Victor Hugo by Graham Robb

  1997CostaBiography
• 
  The Ventriloquist's Tale by Pauline Melville

  1997CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes

  1997CostaPoetry
• 
  Quarantine by Jim Crace

  1997CostaNovel
• 
  Aquila by Andrew Norriss

  1997CostaChildren's
• 
  Thomas Cranmer: A Life by Diarmaid MacCulloch

  1996CostaBiography
• The Tulip Touch by Anne Fine

  1996CostaChildren's
• 
  The Spirit Level by Seamus Heaney

  1996CostaPoetry
• 
  The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester

  1996CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Every Man for Himself by Beryl Bainbridge

  1996CostaNovel
• 
  The Wreck of the Zanzibar by Michael Morpurgo

  1995CostaChildren's
• 
  The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie

  1995CostaNovel
• Gunpowder by Bernard O'Donoghue

  1995CostaPoetry
• 
  Gladstone by Roy Jenkins

  1995CostaBiography
• Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson

  1995CostaFirst Novel
• 
  The Longest Memory by Fred D'Aguiar

  1994CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Out of Danger by James Fenton

  1994CostaPoetry
• 
  Gold Dust by Geraldine McCaughrean

  1994CostaChildren's
• 
  Felicia's Journey by William Trevor

  1994CostaNovel
• D H Lawrence: The Married Man by Brenda Maddox

  1994CostaBiography
• 
  Theory of War by Joan Brady

  1993CostaNovel
• 
  Saving Agnes by Rachel Cusk

  1993CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life by Andrew Motion

  1993CostaBiography
• 
  Mean Time by Carol Ann Duffy

  1993CostaPoetry
• 
  Flour Babies by Anne Fine

  1993CostaChildren's
• 
  Trollope by Victoria Glendinning

  1992CostaBiography
• The Great Elephant Chase by Gillian Cross

  1992CostaChildren's
• 
  The Gaze of the Gorgon by Tony Harrison

  1992CostaPoetry
• 
  Swing Hammer Swing! by Jeff Torrington

  1992CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Poor Things by Alasdair Gray

  1992CostaNovel
• 
  The Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam

  1991CostaNovel
• Harvey Angell by Diana Hendry

  1991CostaChildren's
• 
  Gorse Fires by Michael Longley

  1991CostaPoetry
• 
  Alma Cogan by Gordon Burn

  1991CostaFirst Novel
• 
  A Life of Picasso by John Richardson

  1991CostaBiography
• 
  The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

  1990CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Hopeful Monsters by Nicholas Mosley

  1990CostaNovel
• Daddy, Daddy by Paul Durcan

  1990CostaPoetry
• 
  AK by Peter Dickinson

  1990CostaChildren's
• 
  AA Milne – His Life by Ann Thwaite

  1990CostaBiography
• 
  Why Weeps the Brogan by Hugh Scott

  1989CostaChildren's
• 
  The Chymical Wedding by Lindsay Clarke

  1989CostaNovel
• 
  Shibboleth by Michael Donaghy

  1989CostaPoetry
• 
  Gerontius by James Hamilton-Paterson

  1989CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Coleridge: Early Visions by Richard Holmes

  1989CostaBiography
• 
  Tolstoy by A. N. Wilson

  1988CostaBiography
• 
  The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

  1988CostaNovel
• The Comforts of Madness by Paul Sayer

  1988CostaFirst Novel
• 
  The Automatic Oracle by Peter Porter

  1988CostaPoetry
• Awaiting Developments by Judy Allen

  1988CostaChildren's
• 
  Under the Eye of the Clock by Christopher Nolan

  1987CostaBiography
• 
  The Other Garden by Francis Wyndham

  1987CostaFirst Novel
• The Haw Lantern by Seamus Heaney

  1987CostaPoetry
• 
  The Child in Time by Ian McEwan

  1987CostaNovel
• A Little Lower than the Angels by Geraldine McCaughrean

  1987CostaChildren's
• The Coal House by Andrew Taylor

  1986CostaChildren's
• 
  Stet by Peter Reading

  1986CostaPoetry
• 
  Gilbert White by Richard Mabey

  1986CostaBiography
• 
  Continent by Jim Crace

  1986CostaFirst Novel
• 
  An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

  1986CostaNovel
• 
  The Nature of the Beast by Janni Howker

  1985CostaChildren's
• 
  Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

  1985CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Hugh Dalton by Ben Pimlott

  1985CostaBiography
• Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd

  1985CostaNovel
• 
  Elegies by Douglas Dunn

  1985CostaPoetry
• Tomorrow is our Permanent Address by Diane Rowe

  1984CostaShort Story
• The Queen of the Pharisees' Children by Barbara Willard

  1984CostaChildren's
• 
  T. S. Eliot by Peter Ackroyd

  1984CostaBiography
• 
  Kruger's Alp by Christopher Hope

  1984CostaNovel
• 
  A Parish of Rich Women by James Buchan

  1984CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Vita by Victoria Glendinning

  1983CostaBiography
• 
  The Witches by Roald Dahl

  1983CostaChildren's
• 
  Fools of Fortune by William Trevor

  1983CostaNovel
• 
  Flying to Nowhere by John Fuller

  1983CostaFirst Novel
• Young Shoulders by John Wain

  1982CostaNovel
• The Song of Pentecost by W. J. Corbett

  1982CostaChildren's
• 
  On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin

  1982CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Bismarck by Edward Crankshaw

  1982CostaBiography
• 
  The Hollow Land by Jane Gardam

  1981CostaChildren's
• 
  Silver's City by Maurice Leitch

  1981CostaNovel
• 
  Monty: The Making of a General by Nigel Hamilton

  1981CostaBiography
• 
  A Good Man in Africa by William Boyd

  1981CostaFirst Novel
• 
  On the Edge of Paradise: A. C. Benson, Diarist by David Newsome

  1980CostaBiography
• 
  John Diamond by Leon Garfield

  1980CostaChildren's
• How Far Can You Go by David Lodge

  1980CostaNovel
• Tulku by Peter Dickinson

  1979CostaChildren's
• The Old Jest by Jennifer Johnston

  1979CostaNovel
• 
  About Time by Penelope Mortimer

  1979CostaBiography
• 
  The Battle of Bubble & Squeak by Philippa Pearce

  1978CostaChildren's
• 
  Picture Palace by Paul Theroux

  1978CostaNovel
• 
  Lloyd George: The People's Champion by John Grigg

  1978CostaBiography
• No End to Yesterday by Shelagh Macdonald

  1977CostaChildren's
• 
  Mary Curzon by Nigel Nicolson

  1977CostaBiography
• 
  Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge

  1977CostaNovel
• The Children of Dynmouth by William Trevor

  1976CostaNovel
• 
  Elizabeth Gaskell by Winifred Gerin

  1976CostaBiography
• 
  A Stitch in Time by Penelope Lively

  1976CostaChildren's
• 
  The Improbable Puritan: A Life of Bulstrode Whitelocke by Ruth Spalding

  1975CostaFirst Novel
• 
  In Our Infancy by Helen Corke

  1975CostaBiography
• Docherty by William McIlvanney

  1975CostaNovel
• 
  The Sacred and Profane Love Machine by Iris Murdoch

  1974CostaNovel
• 
  The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft by Claire Tomalin

  1974CostaFirst Novel
• 
  Poor Dear Brendan by Andrew Boyle

  1974CostaBiography
• How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen by Russell Hoban and Quentin Blake

  1974CostaChildren's
• The Chip-Chip Gatherers by Shiva Naipaul

  1973CostaNovel
• The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast by Alan Aldridge and William Plomer

  1973CostaChildren's
• 
  CB: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman by John Wilson

  1973CostaBiography
• The Diddakoi by Rumer Godden

  1972CostaChildren's
• The Bird of Night by Susan Hill

  1972CostaNovel
• 
  Anthony Trollope by James Pope-Hennessy

  1972CostaBiography
• The Destiny Waltz by Gerda Charles

  1971CostaNovel
• Mercian Hymns by Geoffrey Hill

  1971CostaPoetry
• 
  Henrik Ibsen by Michael Meyer

  1971CostaBiography

• Biography
• Children’s Book
• First Novel
• Novel
• Poetry
• Short Story

See also

• Arthur C. Clarke Award
• Booker Prize
• Caldecott Medal
• Carnegie Medal
• Edgar Awards
• Giller Prize
• Hugo Awards
• International Booker Prize
• Kirkus Prize
• Lambda Literary Awards
• Locus Awards
• National Book Award
• National Book Critics Circle Award
• Nebula Awards
• Newbery Medal
• Nobel Prize in Literature
• PEN/Faulkner Award
• PEN/Hemingway Award
• Pulitzer Prizes
• Women’s Prize for Fiction
• World Fantasy Awards