LONDON – H is for Hawk bywriter, poet and historian Helen Macdonald has beaten bookies’ favourite, How to be both by Ali Smith, to win the title of 2014 Costa Book of the Year.
H is for Hawk, part memoir and part nature book, is the author’s personal account of training a goshawk as a way of dealing with grief following her father’s death.
The announcement was made last night (Tuesday 27th January) at an awards ceremony held at Quaglino’s in central London.
The 2014 Costa Short Story Award, judged separately from the main prize, was won by writer Zoe Gilbert.
Macdonald beat novelist and bookmakers’ favourite, Ali Smith, for How to be both, debutwriter Emma Healey for Elizabeth is Missing, poet Jonathan Edwards for My Family and Other Superheroes and author and journalist, Kate Saunders, for Five Children on the Western Front, to win the overall prize and a cheque for £30,000 at the awards ceremony.
Following the judging, Robert Harris, chair of the final judges, said: “All of the judges felt passionately about this book and its wonderful, muscular, chiselled prose.”
He continued, “This is a clever, accomplished piece of writing that everyone will enjoy. It melds a memoir about grief, a biography of TH White and is a wonderful evocation of nature and training a hawk. It’s unique, unforgettable, haunting and a natural book to win this prize.”
Harris chaired a final judging panel that included actresses Dame Diana Rigg and Samantha Bond, BBC Economics Editor Robert Peston, authors Maggie O’Farrell, Bernardine Evaristo and Jonathan Stroud, writer and poet Owen Sheers and author and journalist Wendy Moore.
H is for Hawk, published by Jonathan Cape, is the sixth biography to take the overall prize and the first in ten years. Hilary Spurling was the last author to win the Book of the Year with a biography in 2005 for Matisse: the Master.
The book most recently won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction in November 2014 and was the first memoir to do so in its 16-year history.
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.
Since the introduction of the Book of the Year award in 1985, it has been won eleven times by a novel, six times by a first novel, six times by a biography, five times by a collection of poetry and once by a children’s book.
The Shock of the Fall by debut novelist and mental health nurse Nathan Filer was named Costa Book of the Year in 2013.
Zoe Gilbert wins 2014 Costa Short Story Award
The Costa Book Awards ceremony also saw the announcement of the winner of the Costa Short Story Award. Writer Zoe Gilbert from Sydenham Hill, south-east London won the public vote to win £3,500 for her story, Fishskin, Hareskin. Two runners-up, part-time dentist and writer Paula Cunningham and writer Joanne Meek, received £1,500 and £500 respectively.
Established in 2012, the new Award – run in association with the Costa Book Awards but judged independently of the main five-category system – is unique in that it was judged anonymously (ie without the name of the author being known throughout the process). It is for a single, previously unpublished short story of up to 4,000 words written in English by an author aged 18 years or over, and is open to both published and unpublished writers.
A shortlist of six stories was selected by a panel of judges – Victoria Hislop, Patrick Gale, Richard Beard, Fanny Blake and Simon Trewin – and then made available on the Costa Book Awards website for the public to download and vote for their favourite. Costa Managing Director, Christopher Rogers, announced the winner and runners-up and presented them with their cheques.
