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Authors: Colm Tóibín,Carmen Callil
Author must have been born in Scotland, have Scottish parents or have been resident in Scotland for a considerable period, or have taken Scotland as his or her inspiration. Entries in Scots, English and Gaelic are all eligible. Until 1997, named the McVities Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year.
| 1987 | Nairn in Darkness and Light David Thomas |
| 1988 | The Great Profundo and Other Stories Bernard MacLaverty Antarctica: Beyond the Frozen Sea Edwin Mickleburgh |
| 1989 | MacDiarmid Alan Bold |
| 1990 | From Wood to Ridge Sorley Maclean |
| 1991 | Brazzaville Beach William Boyd |
| 1992 | Scotland’s Music John Purser |
| 1993 | Landscapes and Memories John Prebble |
| 1994 | Foreign Parts Janice Galloway |
| 1995 | Something Very Like Murder Frank Kuppner |
| 1996 | Stone Garden and Other Stories Alan Spence |
| 1997 | Oideachadh Ceart agus dáin ede/A Proper Schooling Aonghas MacNeacail |
| 1998 | The Good Times James Kelman Virtual and Other Realities Edwin Morgan |
| 1996 | The Kiln William McIlvanney |
| 1997 | Grace Notes Bernard MacLaverty |
| 1998 | The Sopranos Alan Warner |
| 1999 | Pursuits George Bruce |
| 2000 | The Lantern Bearers: A Novel Ronald Frame |
| 2001 | Medea Liz Lochhead |
| 2002 | Clara: A Novel Janice Galloway |
| 2003 | Joseph Knight James Robertson |
| 2004 | In Another Light Andrew Greig |
| 2005 | Case Histories Kate Atkinson |
| 2006 | A Lie About my Father John Burnside |
| 2007 | Day A. L. Kennedy |
| 2008 | Kieron Smith, boy James Kelman |
| 2009 | The Bard: Robert Burns, A Biography Robert Crawford |
| 2010 | And the Land Lay Still James Robertson |
The Whitbread Book Awards are made up of six awards: first novel, novel, biography, poetry and children’s. The winners of each adult category then go forward to the Whitbread Book of the Year Award. Author must have been resident in the UK or the Republic of Ireland for three years. Since 2006 this award has been called the Costa Novel Award
| 1971 | The Destiny Waltz Gerda Charles |
| 1972 | The Bird of the Night Susan Hill |
| 1973 | The Chip Chip Gatherers Shiva Naipaul |
| 1974 | The Sacred and Profane Love Machine Iris Murdoch |
| 1975 | Docherty William McIlvanney |
| 1976 | The Children of Dynmouth William Trevor |
| 1977 | Injury Time Beryl Bainbridge |
| 1978 | Picture Palace Paul Theroux |
| 1979 | The Old Jest Jennifer Johnston |
| 1980 | How Far Can You Go? David Lodge (and Book of the Year) |
| 1981 | Silver’s City Maurice Leitch |
| 1982 | Young Shoulders John Wain |
| 1983 | Fools of Fortune William Trevor |
| 1984 | Kruger’s Alp Christopher Hope |
| 1985 | Hawksmoor Peter Ackroyd |
| 1986 | An Artist of the Floating World Kazuo Ishiguro (and Book of the Year) |
| 1987 | The Child in Time Ian McEwan |
| 1988 | The Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie |
| 1989 | The Chymical Wedding Lindsay Clarke |
| 1990 | Hopeful Monsters Nicholas Mosley (and Book of the Year) |
| 1991 | The Queen of the Tambourine Jane Gardam |
| 1992 | Poor Things Alasdair Gray |
| 1993 | Theory of War Joan Brady (and Book of the Year) |
| 1994 | Felicia’s Journey William Trevor (and Book of the Year) |
| 1995 | The Moor’s Last Sigh Salman Rushdie |
| 1996 | Every Man for Himself Beryl Bainbridge |
| 1997 | Quarantine Jim Crace |
| 1998 | Leading the Cheers Justin Cartwright |
| 1999 | Music and Silence Rose Tremain |
| 2000 | English Passengers Matthew Kneale |
| 2001 | Twelve-Bar Blues Patrick Neate |
| 2002 | Spies Michael Frayn |
| 2003 | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Mark Haddon |
| 2004 | Small Island Andea Levy |
| 2005 | The Accidental Ali Smith |
| (Here renamed the Costa Novel Award) | |
| 2006 | Restless William Boyd |
| 2007 | Day A. L. Kennedy |
| 2008 | The Secret Scripture Sebastian Barry |
| 2009 | Brooklyn Colm Tóibín |
| 2010 | The Hand That First Held Mine Maggie O’Farrell |
Author must have been resident in the UK or the Republic of Ireland for three years. Renamed the Costa First Novel Award in 2006.
| 1981 | A Good Man in Africa William Boyd |
| 1982 | On the Black Hill Bruce Chatwin |
| 1983 | Flying to Nowhere John Fuller |
| 1984 | A Parish of Rich Women James Buchan |
| 1985 | Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Jeanette Winterson |
| 1986 | Continent Jim Crace |
| 1987 | The Other Garden Francis Wyndham |
| 1988 | The Comfort of Madness Paul Sayer (and Book of the Year) |
| 1989 | Gerontius James Hamilton-Paterson |
| 1990 | The Buddha of Suburbia Hanif Kureishi |
| 1991 | Alma Cogan (US: Alma: A Novel ) Gordon Burn |
| 1992 | Swing Hammer Swing! Jeff Torrington (and Book of the Year) |
| 1993 | Saving Agnes Rachel Cusk |
| 1994 | The Longest Memory: A Novel Fred D’Aguiar |
| 1995 | Behind the Scenes at the Museum Kate Atkinson (and Book of the Year) |
| 1996 | The Debt to Pleasure John Lanchester |
| 1997 | The Ventriloquist’s Tale Pauline Melville |
| 1998 | The Last King of Scotland Giles Foden |
| 1999 | White City Blues Tim Lott |
| 2000 | White Teeth Zadie Smith |
| 2001 | Something Like a House Sid Smith |
| 2002 | The Song of Names Norman Lebrecht |
| 2003 | Vernon God Little D. B. C. Pierre |
| 2004 | Eve Green Susan Fletcher |
| 2005 | The Harmony Silk Factory Tash Aw |
| 2006 | The Tenderness of Wolves Stef Penney |
| 2007 | What Was Lost Catherine O’Flynn |
| 2008 | The Outcast Sadie Jones |
| 2009 | Beauty Raphael Selbourne |
| 2010 | Witness the Night Kishwar Desai |
Aidan Dunne; Anne Enright; Mary Mount; Andrew O’Hagan; Jon Riley; The London Library; The Library of Trinity College, Dublin.
All my friends helped me with this book, and I am grateful to them for their suggestions, advice, conversations and for listening to me. Special thanks to:
Tariq Ali; Hanan Al Shaykh; Christine Bell; Liz Calder; Lorraine Callil; Susannah Clapp; Frances Coady; John Cox; David Davidar, Penguin Books, India; Polly Devlin; Peter Eyre; Bob Gottlieb; Sandy Grant; Kate Griffin; Clare Harman; Philippa Harrison; John Hayes; Michael Healy, The Cornstalk Bookshop, Sydney, Australia; Michael Herr; Michael Holroyd; Helena Ivins; Pat Kavanagh; Helena Kennedy; Hermione Lee; Suzanne Lowry; Roger Mackell, Gleebooks, Sydney, Australia; Mary Mackintosh and all at the Elgin Bookshop, London W11; Anthony McConnell; Hilary McPhee; David Matthews; Sonny Mehta; Di Melly; Tom Melly; Caroline Michel; Ivan Nabokov; The North Kensington Library, London W11; Craig Raine; Gail Rebuck; Jon Riley; Ann Victoria Roberts; Deborah Rogers; John Ryle; Alison Samuel; Harriet Spicer; Jenny Uglow; Caroline Upcher; Marina Warner; Joshua White; Kitty Wishart, University Bookshop, Auckland, New Zealand; to my agent Gill Coleridge and Ursula Doyle of Picador; and in particular to Max Lowry, aged eighteen when I started this book, whose relish for rock music and bad videos prompted me to provide him and his generation with this pointer, to one of the oldest and best entertainments of all.
The Adventures of Augie March
1
Age of Iron
1
Alias Grace
1
American Pastoral
1
American Psycho
1
Amongst Women
1
An Artist of the Floating World
1
Anecdotes of Destiny
1
Angel
1
Asylum
1
The Balkan Trilogy
1
The Ballad of the Sad Café
1
The Bell Jar
1
Beloved
1
A Bend in the River
1
Birdsong
1
Black List, Section H
1
Black Robe
1
Blood Meridian
1
The Blue Flower
1
The Bonfire of the Vanities
1
A Book of Common Prayer
1
The Book of Evidence
1
A Boy’s Own Story
1
Breathing Lessons
1
Burger’s Daughter
1
The Butcher Boy
1
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
1
The Catcher in the Rye
1
Catch-22
1
The Cement Garden
1
Changing Places
1
The Children’s Bach
1
Cloudstreet
1
Cold Mountain
1
The Color Purple
1
A Confederacy of Dunces
1
The Confessions of Nat Turner
1
Cotter’s England
1
A Dance to the Music of Time
1
A Dark-Adapted Eye
1
The Day of the Jackal
1
Death and Nightingales
1
December Bride
1
Double Whammy
1
Downriver
1
Earthly Powers
1
East of Eden
1
The Echoing Grove
1
Ellen Foster
1
Empire of the Sun
1
The Executioner’s Song
1
Falconer
1
Family and Friends
1
Fifth Business
1
The Financial Expert
1
A Fine Balance
1
A Flag for Sunrise
1
Flaubert’s Parrot
1
The Flint Anchor
1
The Folding Star
1
Forty-Seventeen
1
The Fountain Overflows
1
Friend of My Youth
1
From the Fifteenth District
1
From the Terrace
1
Get Shorty
1
The Go-Between
1
The Godfather
1
The Golden Notebook
1
Go Tell it on the Mountain
1
A Grain of Wheat
1
The Grand Sophy
1
Gravity’s Rainbow
1
The Great World
1
The Group
1
Happiness
1
Heartland
1
Heat and Dust
1
A Heritage and its History
1
Herzog
1
A Home at the End of the World
1
A House for Mr Biswas
1
Housekeeping
1
How Late it Was, How Late
1
The Human Factor
1
The Ice Age
1
Ice-Candy-Man
1
In Custody
1
Injury Time
1
The Interpreters
1
Interview with the Vampire
1
In the Heart of the Heart of the Country
1
In the Skin of a Lion
1
Invisible Man
1
Jeeves in the Offing
1
A Jest of God
1
The Jewel in the Crown
1
The Joy Luck Club
1
The Lady from Guatemala
1
Lamb
1
Lanark: A Life in Four Books
1
Last Exit to Brooklyn
1
Last Orders
1
A Legacy
1
The Little Disturbances of Man
1
The Little Girls
1
Lolita
1
The Lonely Girl
1
Lonesome Dove
1
The Long Good-Bye
1
Lord of the Flies
1
The Lost Salt Gift of Blood
1
Lucky Jim
1
Machine Dreams
1
The Magus
1
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
1
Master and Commander
1
Mating
1
Memoirs of a Peon
1
Midnight’s Children
1
Misery
1
The Molloy Trilogy
1
Money
1
The Murderer
1
A Murder is Announced
1
My Cousin Rachel
1
My Idea of Fun
1
Naked Lunch
1
Nation of Fools
1
The Natural
1
The Nice and the Good
1
The Night in Question
1
Nothing
1
The Old Man and the Sea
1
On the Black Hill
1
On the Road
1
The Optimist’s Daughter
1
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
1
Original Sin
1
Oscar and Lucinda
1
The Other Garden
1
Owls Do Cry
1
The Palm-Wine Drinkard
1
Paris Trout
1
Plumb
1
Possession
1
Power Without Glory
1
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
1
Private Life of an Indian Prince
1
Puffball
1
Quarantine
1
The Rabbit Quartet
1
Ragtime
1
Reading Turgenev
1
The Recognitions
1
Red Dragon
1
The Redundancy of Courage
1
The Regeneration Trilogy
1
The Reivers
1
Riddley Walker
1
Riders in the Chariot
1
A River Sutra
1
St Urbain’s Horseman
1
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
1
Saville
1
Schindler’s Ark
1
The Secret History
1
Ship of Fools
1
The Shipping News
1
The Siege of Krishnapur
1
Sleepless Nights
1
The Snapper
1
So Long, See You Tomorrow
1
The Sportswriter
1
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
1
A Strange and Sublime Address
1