Final Judging Panel Announced For 2014 Costa Book of the Year

London, 12th December 2014: Bestselling author, Robert Harris, will chair the final judging panel which selects the overall winner of the prestigious 2014 Costa Book of the Year, it was announced today.

The Costa Book Awards is the only major UK book prize that is open solely to authors resident in the UK and Ireland and also, uniquely, recognises the most enjoyable books across five categories – First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book - published in the last year.

Originally established in 1971 by Whitbread Plc, Costa announced its takeover of the sponsorship of the UK's most prestigious book prize in 2006. 2014 marks the 43rd year of the Book Awards.

The final nine-member panel that selects the overall Costa Book of the Year is made up of a Chairman, a judge from each category panel and three other well-known people in the public eye – and who are outside of the publishing world - who love reading and whose opinions the public would respect.

Robert Harris will chair the panel this year which includes Game of Thrones and Avengers actress, Dame Diana Rigg, BBC Economics Editor, Robert Peston, and Downton Abbey actress, Samantha Bond.

The five category judging panels are represented by writers Maggie O’Farrell (First Novel Award), Bernardine Evaristo (Novel), Jonathan Stroud (Children’s Book Award), Owen Sheers (Poetry) and Wendy Moore (Biography).

The final judges will meet on Tuesday 27th January 2015 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 presenter and broadcaster Penny Smith, will take place at Quaglino’s in central London.

“What a stellar line-up of judges we have this year, all of whom share a passion for excellent writing and a good read,” commented Christopher Rogers, Managing Director at Costa “We're thrilled to have such a fine panel of well-read people to undertake the task of selecting the Costa Book of the Year in January.”

Former final judges have included Sharleen Spiteri, Alexander Armstrong, Richard Osman, Jenny Agutter, Mark Watson, Hugh Dennis, Elizabeth McGovern, David Morrissey, Rosamund Pike, Gary Kemp, Erin O’Connor, Alex James, Emilia Fox, Marie Helvin, Michael Morpurgo, Hugh Grant, Caroline Quentin, Ralph Fiennes, Jerry Hall, Ian Hislop, Jonathan Ross and Kirsty Young.

Former winners of the Book of the Year include Nathan Filer (2013), Hilary Mantel (2012), Andrew Miller (2011), Jo Shapcott (2010), Christopher Reid (2009), Sebastian Barry (2008), A.L. Kennedy (2007), Stef Penney (2006), Hilary Spurling (2005), Andrea Levy (2004), Mark Haddon (2003), Kate Atkinson (1995), Philip Pullman, Seamus Heaney and the late Ted Hughes.

Each of the five category award-winning authors receives £5,000 and the author of the overall Costa Book of the Year will be presented with a cheque for £30,000. This is the 43rd year of the prize. The winner of the Costa Short Story Award – now in its third year and voted for by the general public - will also be announced at the awards ceremony.

For more information on this year’s Costa Book Awards, go to www.costa.co.uk/costa-book-awards.

-ENDS-

For further press information, images or to arrange an interview with a member of the final judging panel, please contact:

Amanda Johnson

Costa Book Awards Press and Publicity

Telephone: 07715 922180 (mobile)

Email: amanda@amandajohnsonpr.com

­­­­­­­­­­Notes for Editors:

About the Costa Book Awards:

The Costa Book Awards, formerly the Whitbread Book Awards, were established in 1971 to encourage, promote and celebrate the best contemporary British writing.

The total prize fund for the Costa Book Awards – including the Costa Short Story Award - stands at £60,000.

The award winners from the five categories - Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book - each receive £5,000.

The overall Costa Book of the Year is selected from the five category Award winners with the winner receiving a further £30,000.

The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony in central London on 27th January, 2015.

To be eligible for the 2014 awards, books must have been first published in the UK or Ireland between 1 November 2013 and 31 October 2014.

The 2013 Costa Book of the Year was The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer(Borough Press).

2014 Costa Book Awards: Final Judging Panel Biographies:

Robert Harris (Chairman): Author

Robert Harris is the author of nine bestselling novels: Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel, Pompeii, Imperium, The Ghost, Lustrum, The Fear Index, and An Officer and A Spy. His next novel, Dictator, due to be published in 2015, is the much-anticipated conclusion to the Cicero trilogy.

Several of his books have been filmed, most recently The Ghost, which was directed by Roman Polanski. His work has been translated into thirty-seven languages. He lives in west Berkshire with his wife Gill Hornby and their children.

Samantha Bond: Actor

Samantha Bond was brought up in London and trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She is best known for her roles as Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond films during the Pierce Brosnan years, as Auntie Angela in the BBC comedy Outnumbered, Lady Rosamund Painswick in Downton Abbey and as the original Ms Liz Probert in Rumpole of the Bailey.

Her recent theatre credits include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Savoy Theatre) and What the Butler Saw (Vaudeville), her TV credits include Distant Shores, Fanny Hill, Midsomer Murders, Larkrise to Candleford and Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, whilst her film credits include Bunch of Amateurs and Blinded.

Bernardine Evaristo MBE: Writer (representing the Novel Award category) Bernardine Evaristo is the author of seven books of fiction and verse fiction, most recently Mr Loverman about a closet-gay Caribbean Londoner aged 74 which won a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize in 2014. Two of her books have been adapted into BBC Radio 4 dramas since 2012. She is a literary critic, teaches creative writing at Brunel University, and has judged many leading literary awards as well as winning several. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2004, the Royal Society of Arts in 2006, and she was made an MBE in 2009.

Wendy Moore: Author and Freelance Journalist (representing the Biography Award category)

Wendy Moore is an author and freelance journalist. Her first book The Knife Man, a biography of the 18^th century surgeon John Hunter,was published in 2005. It inspired a pilot for a TV series, Knifeman, currently being developed by AMC with Tom Hollander and Daniel Mays in lead roles. Her second book, Wedlock,was published in 2009 and was picked for Channel 4’s TV Book Club, reaching no 1 in the Sunday Times bestseller list. Her third, How to Create the Perfect Wife, came out last year. She is currently working on a novel and a fourth non-fiction book. Wendy is a fellow of the Royal Literary Fund.

Maggie O’Farrell: Writer (representing the First Novel Award category)

Maggie O'Farrell is the author of six novels: After You’d Gone, My Lover’s Lover, The Distance Between Us, which won a Somerset Maugham Award, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, The Hand That First Held Mine, which won the 2010 Costa Novel Award, and Instructions for a Heatwave, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Novel Award. She lives in Edinburgh.

Robert Peston: BBC Economics Editor

Robert Peston is the BBC's Economics Editor and founder of the education charity, Speakers for Schools (www.speakers4schools.org). He has written three books, How Do We Fix This Mess, Who Runs Britain, and Brown’s Britain.

Peston has won numerous awards for his journalism, including Journalist of the Year from the Royal Television Society. His blog is bbc.co.uk/robertpeston and he is @peston on Twitter.

Dame Diana Rigg: Actress

Diana Rigg trained at RADA. Her very extensive theatre credits include All About My Mother (Old Vic), Phedre & Brittanicus (Albery Theatre), Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf (Almeida), Medea (Almeida & Broadway: Tony Award for Best Actress & Evening Standard Award for Best Actress), Sondheim’s Follies (Shaftesbury Theatre), Pygmalion (Albery Theatre) Her television credits include Game of Thrones (Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series), Doctor Who, Extras, Rebecca (Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress), Mother Love (BAFTA Award for Best Actress), Hedda Gabler and ‘Emma Peel’ in The Avengers. Her film credits include The Painted Veil, A Good Man In Africa, Evil Under The Sun, A Little Night Music and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Diana was made a CBE in 1988 and a Dame in 1994.

Owen Sheers: Poet and Author (representing the Poetry Award category)

Owen Sheers has written two collections of poetry, The Blue Book and Skirrid Hill, which won a Somerset Maugham Award. His verse drama Pink Mist won Wales Book of the Year and the Hay Festival Poetry Medal. His non-fiction includes The Dust Diaries and Calon: A Journey to the Heart of Welsh Rugby. His first novel Resistance has been translated into ten languages and was made into a film in 2011. His plays include The Passion, The Two Worlds of Charlie F. and Mametz. Owen wrote and presented BBC Four's A Poet's Guide to Britain. He has been a NYPL Cullman Fellow, Writer-in-Residence for the Wordsworth Trust and Artist-in-Residence for the Welsh Rugby Union. His second novel, I Saw a Man, will be published by Faber in 2015.

Jonathan Stroud: Author (representing the Children’s Book Award category)

Jonathan Stroud is an author who writes for children and young adults. He is the author of the bestselling Bartimaeus sequence, which is published in 36 languages and won the 2006 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature, the 2006 Corinne Award, Germany, and the 2007 Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire. His new series, Lockwood & Co, was launched in 2013 to critical acclaim and won four literary awards with a further seven shortlistings. Jonathan lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and two children.

www.costabookawards.com