Costa Book Award Biography Winners — Complete List (1971–2021)

• Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John Preston

  2021CostaBiography

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• The Louder I Will Sing by Lee Lawrence

  2020CostaBiography

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• The Volunteer by Jack Fairweather

  2019CostaBiography

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

  2018CostaBiography

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• In the Days of Rain by Rebecca Stott

  2017CostaBiography
• Dadland: A Journey into Uncharted Territory by Keggie Carew

  2016CostaBiography
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  The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf

  2015CostaBiography

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  H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

  2014CostaBiography

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  The Pike by Lucy Hughes-Hallett

  2013CostaBiography

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

  2012CostaBiography

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

  2011CostaBiography

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  The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal

  2010CostaBiography

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

  2009CostaBiography

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  Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill

  2008CostaBiography

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  Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore

  2007CostaBiography

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  Keeping Mum by Brian Thompson

  2006CostaBiography

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  Matisse the Master by Hilary Spurling

  2005CostaBiography

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  My Heart Is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots by John Guy

  2004CostaBiography

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  Orwell: The Life by DJ Taylor

  2003CostaBiography

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  Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self by Claire Tomalin

  2002CostaBiography

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  Selkirk's Island by Diana Souhami

  2001CostaBiography

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  Bad Blood– A Memoir

  2000CostaBiography

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  Berlioz Volume Two: Servitude and Greatness by David Cairns

  1999CostaBiography

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  Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman

  1998CostaBiography

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  Victor Hugo by Graham Robb

  1997CostaBiography

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  Thomas Cranmer: A Life by Diarmaid MacCulloch

  1996CostaBiography

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  Gladstone by Roy Jenkins

  1995CostaBiography

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• D H Lawrence: The Married Man by Brenda Maddox

  1994CostaBiography
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  Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life by Andrew Motion

  1993CostaBiography

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  Trollope by Victoria Glendinning

  1992CostaBiography

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  A Life of Picasso by John Richardson

  1991CostaBiography

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  AA Milne – His Life by Ann Thwaite

  1990CostaBiography

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  Coleridge: Early Visions by Richard Holmes

  1989CostaBiography

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  Tolstoy by A. N. Wilson

  1988CostaBiography

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  Under the Eye of the Clock by Christopher Nolan

  1987CostaBiography

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  Gilbert White by Richard Mabey

  1986CostaBiography

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  Hugh Dalton by Ben Pimlott

  1985CostaBiography

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  T. S. Eliot by Peter Ackroyd

  1984CostaBiography

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  Vita by Victoria Glendinning

  1983CostaBiography

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  Bismarck by Edward Crankshaw

  1982CostaBiography

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  Monty: The Making of a General by Nigel Hamilton

  1981CostaBiography

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  On the Edge of Paradise: A. C. Benson, Diarist by David Newsome

  1980CostaBiography

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  About Time by Penelope Mortimer

  1979CostaBiography

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  Lloyd George: The People's Champion by John Grigg

  1978CostaBiography

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  Mary Curzon by Nigel Nicolson

  1977CostaBiography

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  Elizabeth Gaskell by Winifred Gerin

  1976CostaBiography

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  In Our Infancy by Helen Corke

  1975CostaBiography

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  Poor Dear Brendan by Andrew Boyle

  1974CostaBiography

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  CB: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman by John Wilson

  1973CostaBiography

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  Anthony Trollope by James Pope-Hennessy

  1972CostaBiography

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  Henrik Ibsen by Michael Meyer

  1971CostaBiography

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