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Judging Panel announced for 2009 Costa Book of the Year
Novelist Josephine Hart will chair the final judging which selects the overall winner of the prestigious 2009 Costa Book of the Year, it was announced today.
The Costa Book Awards recognise the most enjoyable books of the last year by writers based in the UK and Ireland.
Josephine will chair a panel which includes writer and model Marie Helvin, actresses Caroline Quentin and Dervla Kirwan, musician, actor and writer, Gary Kemp, ITV News Political Editor Tom Bradby and actor and writer, Neil Pearson, who is also representing the Costa Novel Award category.
The other four category judging panels are represented by authors William Nicholson (Children’s Book Award), Sandra Howard (First Novel) and Robert Lacey (Biography), and Literary Review Deputy Editor, Tom Fleming (Poetry).
The final judges will meet on Tuesday 26th January 2010 to select the winner of the Costa Book of the Year, which will be announced at an awards ceremony later that evening.
The ceremony, hosted by GMTV presenter Penny Smith, will take place at Quaglino’s in central London.
“The Costa Book Awards have an excellent track record of recognising and celebrating some of the very best and most enjoyable books of the last year,” said John Derkach, Managing Director at Costa. “It’s never an easy task to single out one Book of the Year which stands out above the rest, but we’re delighted to have such a fine panel of strong-minded people to undertake the task this year, all of whom are avid readers and passionate about books.”
Former final judges have included Rosamund Pike, Erin O’Connor, Alex James, Emilia Fox, Michael Morpurgo, Hugh Grant, Ralph Fiennes, Jerry Hall, Ian Hislop, Jonathan Ross, and Kirsty Young. Recent winners of the Book of the Year include Sebastian Barry (2008), A.L. Kennedy (2007), Stef Penney (2006), Hilary Spurling (2005), Andrea Levy (2004), Mark Haddon (2003), Philip Pullman, Seamus Heaney and the late Ted Hughes.
Costa is also pleased to announce that this year’s total prize fund will be increased to £55,000.
Each of the category award-winning authors receive £5,000 and this year the overall Costa Book of the Year winner will be presented with a cheque for £30,000, an increase of £5,000 from last year.
“Costa is very proud of its sponsorship of the Book Awards,” added John Derkach, “and we’re delighted to be able to further acknowledge and reward the outstanding achievement of the Costa Book of the Year winner by increasing the prize fund this year.”
For more information on this year’s Costa Book Awards, go to www.costabookawards.com.
Posted: December 18th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Awards
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