Costa Book Award Biography Winners — Complete List (1971–2021) Home › Costa Book Awards › Biography Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John Preston 2021CostaBiography AmazonBookshop The Louder I Will Sing by Lee Lawrence 2020CostaBiography AmazonBookshop The Volunteer by Jack Fairweather 2019CostaBiography AmazonBookshop The Cut Out Girl: A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found by Bart van Es 2018CostaBiography AmazonBookshop In the Days of Rain by Rebecca Stott 2017CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Dadland: A Journey into Uncharted Territory by Keggie Carew 2016CostaBiography The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf 2015CostaBiography AmazonBookshop H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald 2014CostaBiography AmazonBookshop The Pike by Lucy Hughes-Hallett 2013CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Dotter of Her Father's Eyes by Mary Talbot and Bryan Talbot 2012CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas 2011CostaBiography AmazonBookshop The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal 2010CostaBiography AmazonBookshop The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius by Graham Farmelo 2009CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill 2008CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore 2007CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Keeping Mum by Brian Thompson 2006CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Matisse the Master by Hilary Spurling 2005CostaBiography AmazonBookshop My Heart Is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots by John Guy 2004CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Orwell: The Life by DJ Taylor 2003CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self by Claire Tomalin 2002CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Selkirk's Island by Diana Souhami 2001CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Bad Blood– A Memoir 2000CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Berlioz Volume Two: Servitude and Greatness by David Cairns 1999CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman 1998CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Victor Hugo by Graham Robb 1997CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Thomas Cranmer: A Life by Diarmaid MacCulloch 1996CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Gladstone by Roy Jenkins 1995CostaBiography AmazonBookshop D H Lawrence: The Married Man by Brenda Maddox 1994CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life by Andrew Motion 1993CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Trollope by Victoria Glendinning 1992CostaBiography AmazonBookshop A Life of Picasso by John Richardson 1991CostaBiography AmazonBookshop AA Milne – His Life by Ann Thwaite 1990CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Coleridge: Early Visions by Richard Holmes 1989CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Tolstoy by A. N. Wilson 1988CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Under the Eye of the Clock by Christopher Nolan 1987CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Gilbert White by Richard Mabey 1986CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Hugh Dalton by Ben Pimlott 1985CostaBiography AmazonBookshop T. S. Eliot by Peter Ackroyd 1984CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Vita by Victoria Glendinning 1983CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Bismarck by Edward Crankshaw 1982CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Monty: The Making of a General by Nigel Hamilton 1981CostaBiography AmazonBookshop On the Edge of Paradise: A. C. Benson, Diarist by David Newsome 1980CostaBiography AmazonBookshop About Time by Penelope Mortimer 1979CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Lloyd George: The People's Champion by John Grigg 1978CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Mary Curzon by Nigel Nicolson 1977CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Elizabeth Gaskell by Winifred Gerin 1976CostaBiography AmazonBookshop In Our Infancy by Helen Corke 1975CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Poor Dear Brendan by Andrew Boyle 1974CostaBiography AmazonBookshop CB: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman by John Wilson 1973CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Anthony Trollope by James Pope-Hennessy 1972CostaBiography AmazonBookshop Henrik Ibsen by Michael Meyer 1971CostaBiography AmazonBookshop