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Founded in 1971 and sponsored by Whitbread Breweries and administered by the Booksellers Association of Great Britain and Ireland, the Whitbread Prize was renamed Costa, after its new sponsor (a coffee company), in 2006. It is usually considered second only to the Booker in esteem, and by some a more important award. There are actually five Costa/Whitbread genre prizes each year--best novel, best first novel, best biography, best book of poems, and best children's book--from which one is chosen as book of the year. Authors who have lived in Great Britain or Ireland for over three years are eligible. Category winners receive £5000; the overall winner, for the Whitbread Book of the Year, receives an additional £25,000, one of the richest of all literary awards.
| 1971 | Novel Biography Poetry |
Gerda Charles Michael Meyer Geoffrey Hill |
The Destiny Waltz Henrik Ibsen Mercian Hymns |
| 1972 | Novel Biography Children |
Susan Hill James Pope-Hennessey Rumer Godden |
The Bird of Night Trollope The Diddakoi |
| 1973 | Novel Biography Children |
Shiva Naipaul John Wilson Alan Aldridge and William Plomer |
The Chip Chip Gatherers CB: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast |
| 1974 | Novel Biography Children (tie) 1st book |
Iris Murdoch Andrew Boyle Russell Hoban and Quentin Blake Jill Paton Walsh Claire Tomalin |
The Sacred and Profane Love Machine Poor Dear Brendan How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen The Emperor's Winding Sheet The Life and Death of Mary Woolstonecraft |
| 1975 | Novel AutoBiography First Book |
William McIlvanney Helen Corke Ruth Spalding |
Docherty In Our Infancy The Improbable Puritan: A Life of Bulstrode Whitelock |
| 1976 | Novel Biography Children |
William Trevor Winifred Gerin Penelope Lively |
The Children of Dynmouth Elizabeth Gaskell A Stitch in Time |
| 1977 | Novel Biography Children |
Beryl Bainbridge Nigel Nicolson Shelagh Macdonald |
Injury Time Mary Curzon No End to Yesterday |
| 1978 | Novel Biography Children |
Paul Theroux Jon Grigg Philippa Pearce |
Picture Palace Lloyd George: The People's Champion The Battle of Bubble and Squeak |
| 1979 | Novel Autobio graphy Children |
Jennifer Johnston Penelope Mortimer Peter Dickinson |
The Old Jest About Time Tulku |
| 1980 | Novel Biography Children |
David Lodge David Newsome Leon Garfield |
How Far Can You Go? * On the Edge of Paradise: A C Benson the Diarist John Diamond |
| 1981 | Novel Biography Children 1st Novel |
Maurice Leitch Nigel Hamilton Jane Gardam William Boyd |
Silver's City Monty: the Making of a General The Hollow Land A Good Man in Africa |
| 1982 | Novel Biography Children 1st Novel |
John Wain Edward Crankshaw W. J. Corbett Bruce Chatwin |
Young Shoulders Bismarck The Song of Pentecost On the Black Hill |
| 1983 | Novel Biography (tie) Children 1st Novel |
William Trevor Victoria Glendinning Kenneth Rose Roald Dahl John Fuller |
Fools of Fortune Vita King George V The Witches Flying to Nowhere |
| 1984 | Novel Biography Children 1st Novel short story |
Christopher Hope Peter Ackroyd Barbara Willard John Buchan Diane Rowe |
Kruger's Alp T. S. Eliot The Queen of the Pharisees' Children A Parish of Rich Women Tomorrow is Our Permanent Address |
| 1985 | Novel Biography Children 1st Novel Poetry |
Peter Ackroyd Ben Pimlott Janni Howker Jeanette Winterson Douglas Dunn |
Hawksmoor Hugh Dalton The Nature of the Beast Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Elegies * |
| 1986 | Novel Biography Children 1st Novel Poetry |
Kazuo Ishiguro Richard Mabey Andrew Taylor Jim Crace Peter Reading |
An Artist of the Floating World * Gilbert White The Coal House Continent Stet |
| 1987 | Novel Biography children 1st Novel Poetry |
Ian McEwan Christopher Nolan Geraldine McCaughrean Francis Wyndham Seamus Heaney |
The Child in Time Under the Eye of the Clock * A Little Lower Than the Angels The Other Garden The Haw Lantern |
| 1988 | Novel Biography children 1st Novel poetry |
Salman Rushdie A N Wilson Judy Allen Paul Sayer Peter Porter |
The Satanic Verses Tolstoy Awaiting Developments The Comforts of Madness * The Automatic Oracle |
| 1989 | Novel Biography children 1st Novel Poetry |
Lindsay Clarke Richard Holmes Hugh Scott James Hamilton Paterson Michael Donaghy |
The Chymical Wedding Coleridge: EarlylVisions * Why Weeps the Brogan? Gerontius Shibboleth |
| 1990 | Novel Biography children 1st Novel poetry |
Nicholas Mosley Ann Thwaite Peter Dickinson Haneif Kureishi Paul Durcan |
Hopeful Monsters * A A Milne: His Life AK The Buddha of Suburbia Daddy, Daddy |
| 1991 | Novel Biography children 1st Novel poetry |
Jane Gardam John Richardson Diana Hendry Gordon Burn Michael Longley |
The Queen of the Tambourine A Life of Picasso * Harvey Angell Alma Cogan Gorse Fires |
| 1992 | Novel Biography children 1st Novel poetry |
Alisdair Gray Victorian Glendinning Gillian Cross Jeff Torrington Tony Harrison |
Poor Things Trollope The Great Elephant Chase Swing Hammer Swing! * The Gaze of the Gorgon |
| 1993 | Novel Biography children 1st Novel poetry |
Joan Brady Andrew Motion Anne Fine Rachel Cusk Carol Ann Duffy |
Theory of War * Philip Larkin Flour Babies Saving Agnes Mean Time |
| 1994 | Novel Biography children 1st Novel poetry |
William Trevor Brenda Maddox Geraldine McCaughrean Fred D'Aguiar James Fenton |
Felicia's Journey * The Married Man Gold Dust The Longest Memory Out of Danger |
| 1995 | Novel Biography children 1st Novel poetry |
Salman Rushdie Roy Jenkins Michael Morpurgo Kate Atkinson Bernard O'Donoghue |
The Moor's Last Sigh Gladstone The Wreck of the Zanzibar Behind the Scenes at the Museum * Gunpowder |
| 1996 | Novel Biography 1st Novel Poetry children |
Beryl Bainbridge Diarmaid MacCulloch John Lanchester Seamus Heaney Anne Fine |
Every Man for Himself Thomas Cranmer: A Life The Debt to Pleasure The Spirit Level * The Tulip Touch |
| 1997 | Novel Biography 1st Novel poetry children |
Jim Crace Graham Robb Pauline Melville Ted Hughes Andrew Norriss |
Quarantine Victor Hugo The Ventriloquist's Tale Tales from Ovid * Aquila |
| 1998 | Novel Biography 1st Novel poetry children |
Justin Cartwright Amanda Foreman Giles Foden Ted Hughes David Almond |
Leading the Cheers Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire The Last King of Scotland Birthday Letters Skellig |
| 1999 | Novel Biography 1st Novel poetry children |
Rose Tremain David Cairns Tim Lott Seamus Heaney J. K. Rowling |
Music and Silence Berlioz, vol. II White City Blue Beowulf* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban |
| 2000 | Novel Biography 1st Novel poetry children's book |
Matthew
Kneale Lorna Sage Zadie Smith John Burnside Jamila Gavin |
English
Passengers* Bad Blood White Teeth The Asylum Dance Coram Boy |
| 2001 | Novel
Biography 1st Novel Poetry children's book |
Patrick
Neate Diana Souhami Sid Smith Selima Hill Philip Pullman |
Twelve
Bar Blues Selkirk's Island Something Like a House Bunny The Amber Spyglass* |
| 2002 | Novel Biography 1st Novel Poetry children's book |
Michael
Frayn Claire Tomalin Norman Lebrecht Paul Farley Hilary McKay |
Spies Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self* The Song of Names The Ice Age Saffy's Angel |
| 2003 | Novel Biography First Novel Poetry children's book |
Mark
Haddon D. J. Taylor DBC Pierre Don Paterson David Almond |
The
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time * Orwell, The Life Vernon God Little Landing Light The Fire-Eaters |
| 2004 | Novel Biography First Novel Poetry children's book |
Andrea
Levy John Guy Susan Fletcher Michael Symmons Roberts Geraldine McCaughrean |
Small
Island * My Heart Is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots Eve Green Corpus Not The End of theWorld |
| 2005 | Novel Biography First Novel Poetry children's book |
Ali Smith Hilary Spurling Tash Aw Christopher Logue Kate Thompson |
The Accidental Matisse the Master * The Harmony Silk Factory Cold Calls The New Policeman |
| 2006 | Novel Biography First Novel Poetry children's book |
William Boyd
Brian Thompson Stef Penney John Haynes Linda Newbery |
Restless Keeping Mum The Tenderness of Wolves * Letter to Patience Set in Stone |
| 2007 | Novel Biography First Novel Poetry children's book |
A. L. Kennedy Simon Sebag Montefiore Catherinie O'Flynn Jean Sprackland Ann Kelley |
Day * Young Stalin What Was Lost Tilt The Bower Bird |
| 2008 | Novel Biography First Novel Poetry children's book |
Sebastian Barry Diana Athill Sadie Jones Adam Foulds Michelle Magorian |
The Secret Scripture Somewhere Towards the End The Outcast The Broken Word Just Henry |
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