2010 Costa Book Awards

The Costa Book Awards (before 2006 known as the Whitbread 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 2010.

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

Book of the Year

Winner:

• Jo Shapcott, Of Mutability

Children's Book

Winner:

• Jason Wallace, Out of Shadows

Shortlist:

• Lucy Christopher, Flyaway
• Sharon Dogar, Annexed
• Jonathan Stroud, Bartimaeus: The Ring of Solomon

First Novel

Winner:

• Kishwar Desai, Witness the Night

Shortlist:

• Nikesh Shukla, Coconut Unlimited
• Aatish Taseer, The Temple-Goers
• Simon Thirsk, Not Quite White

Novel

Winner:

• Maggie O'Farrell, The Hand That First Held Mine

Shortlist:

• Louise Doughty, Whatever You Love
• Nigel Farndale, The Blasphemer
• Paul Murray, Skippy Dies

Biography

Winner:

• Edmund de Waal, The Hare with Amber Eyes

Shortlist:

• Sarah Bakewell, How to Live A Life of Montaigne
• Michael Frayn, My Father's Fortune

Poetry

Winner:

• Jo Shapcott, Of Mutability

Shortlist:

• Roy Fisher, Standard Midland
• Robin Robertson, The Wrecking Light
• Sam Willetts, New Light for the Old Dark

References

• Previous winners

External links

• "Costa prize shortlist falls short on biographies", Mark Brown, The Guardian, 16 November 2010
• "Costa judge laments a weak year for fiction", Arifa Akbar, The Independent, 17 November 2010