Costa Book Awards

The 1989 Whitbread Book Award for Best Novel was first awarded to The War Zone by Alexander Stuart. However, juror Jane Gardam felt the book was "repellent" and appealed directly to the Whitbread company, arguing that awarding the prize to Stuart's novel would make them into a "laughing stock". After ten days, and leaking the story to the press, the other two jurors, David Cook and Val Hennessy, were persuaded to change their minds, and Lindsay Clarke's The Chymical Wedding won the award instead. Both Cook and Hennessy found the experience so unpleasant they vowed to never sit in an award jury again. The awards were discontinued in 2022, with the 2021 awards being the last ones made. Just one month later, the Blue Peter Book Award was also discontinued; this left only three widely recognized awards for UK children's literature (the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, the Carnegie Medal, and the Kate Greenaway Medal). ==Process==

There were five book award categories. These had not been changed since the Poetry Award was introduced in 1985, although the children's category had been termed "children's novel" or "children's book of the year". The winning story was determined by public vote from a shortlist of six that were selected by a panel of judges. The process was "blind" at both stages for the unpublished entries were anonymous until the conclusion. In the inaugural year, the six short story finalists were exposed anonymously online while the public vote was underway, two months before the winner was to be announced. ==Winners==

Bold font and blue ribbon () distinguish the overall Costa/Whitbread Book of the Year. For lists that include shortlisted entries (where available), please see: • Costa Book Award for Novel • Costa Book Award for First Novel • Costa Book Award for Children's Book • Costa Book Award for Poetry • Costa Book Award for Biography • Costa Book Award for Short Story List of award winners ==See also==