Costa Book Awards 2013: Shortlist

Hoorah, arguably my favourite awards of the year, the Costa Book Awards, have announced their shortlisted titles in each category. As always, Costa's 'First Novel Award' introduces us to some fresh new writers and I've got to say, so far, they've got it right. You all know my love for The Outcast by Sadie Jones, which won the award in 2008, and The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney which won both the First Novel Award and Costa's Book of the Year in 2006. 

Historically, the Costa Book Awards used to be the Whitbread awards prior to the renaming in 2006. Over the years the awards have recognised a staggering number of top debut writers that have gone on to great things: Zadie Smith, Kate Atkinson, Mark Haddon, Jeanette Winterson and William Boyd to name but a few.

Surprise surprise, this year far-from-debut-novelist Hilary Mantel is up there hoping to continue her winning streak with Wolf Hall sequel, Bring Up the Bodies. For the first time the shortlist features two graphic novels as well as another year of fantastic children's books. Here's the shortlist below, or as I like to call it, 'my Christmas list'.

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Costa First Novel Award

The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder, J W Ironmonger (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

Snake Ropes, Jess Richards (Sceptre)

The Innocents, Francesca Segal (Chatto & Windus)

The Bellwether Revivals, Benjamin Wood (Simon & Schuster)

Costa Novel Award

Bring up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel (Fourth Estate)

Life! Death! Prizes!, Stephen May (Bloomsbury)

The Heart Broke In, James Meek (Canongate)

Days of the Bagnold Summer, Joff Winterhart (Jonathan Cape)

Costa Biography Award

Patrick Leigh-Fermor: An Adventure, Artemis Cooper (John Murray)

The Crocodile by the Door: The Story of A House, A Farm and A Family, Selina Guinness (Penguin Ireland)

Serving Victoria: Life in the Royal Household, Kate Hubbard (Chatto & Windus)

Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes, Mary Talbot and Bryan Talbot (Jonathan Cape)

Costa Poetry Award

Bee Journal, Sean Borodale (Jonathan Cape)

The World’s Two Smallest Humans, Julia Copus (Faber and Faber)

People Who Like Meatballs, Selima Hill (Bloodaxe Books)

The Overhaul, Kathleen Jamie (Picador)

Costa Children’s Book Award

Maggot Moon, Sally Gardner (Hot Key Books)

The Seeing, Diana Hendry (The Bodley Head)

What’s Up with Jody Barton?, Hayley Long (Macmillan Children’s Books)

A Boy and A Bear in A Boat, Dave Shelton (David Fickling Books)