The Whitbread Award for Fiction

2005

Costa Coffee announced 1 June 2006 a new sponsorship deal to take over the prestigious Whitbread Book Awards. The 2006 awards will be known as the Costa Book Awards.

Novel

The Accidental Winner

Ali Smith

A Long Way Down

Nick Hornby

Shalimar The Clown

Salman Rushdie

The Ballad of Lee Cotton

Christopher Wilson

First Novel

The Harmony Silk Factory Winner

Tash Aw

26a

Diana Evans

The Short Day Dying

Peter Hobbs

Gem Squash Tokoloshe

Rachel Zadok

Poetry

Cold Calls Winner

Christopher Logue

Legion

David Harsent

Lucky Day

Richard Price

Marabou

Jane Yeh

2004

• Book of the Year and Novel Small Island Andrea Levy
• First Novel Eve Green Susan Fletcher
• Poetry Corpus Michael Symmons Roberts

2003

• Book of the Year and Novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon
• First Novel Vernon God Little DBC Pierre
• Poetry Landing Light Don Paterson

2002

• Novel Spies Michael Frayn
• First Novel The Song of Names Norman Lebrecht
• Poetry The Ice Age Paul Farley

2001

• Book of the year and Children's book of the year The Amber Spyglass Philip Pullman (part 3 of His Dark Materials series)
• NovelTwelve bar blues Patrick Neate
• First Novel Something like a house Sid Smith

2000

• Book of the year English passengers Matthew Kneale
• First Novel White teeth Zadie Smith
• Novel English passengers Matthew Kneale

1999

• Book of the Year Beowulf Seamus Heaney
• First Novel White city blue Tim Lott
• Novel Music and silence Rose Tremain

1998

• Book of the YearBirthday letters Ted Hughes
• First Novel The Last King of Scotland Giles Foden
• Novel Leading the cheers Justin Cartwright

1997

• Book of the Year and First Novel The Ventriloquist's tale Pauline Melville
• Novel Quarantine Jim Crace

1996

• Book of the Year and First Novel A Debt to pleasure John Lanchester
• Novel Every man for himself Beryl Bainbridge

1995

• Book of the Year and First Novel Behind the scenes at the museum Kate Atkinson
• Novel The Moor's last sigh Salman Rushdie

1994

• Novel and Book of the Year Felicia’s journey William Trevor
• First Novel The Longest memory Fred D’Aguiar

1993

• Novel and Grand Prize Theory of war Joan Brady
• First Novel Saving Agnes Rachel Cusk

1992

• Novel Poor things Alasdair Gray
• First Novel Swing hammer swing! Jeff Torrington

1991

• Novel The Queen of the tambourine Jane Gardam
• First Novel Alma Cogan Gordon Burn

1990

• Novel Hopeful monsters Nicholas Mosley
• First Novel The Buddha of Suburbia Hanif Kureishi

1989

• Novel The Chymical wedding Lindsay Clarke
• First Novel Gerontius James Hamilton-Paterson

1988

• Novel Satanic verses Salman Rushdie
• First Novel and Grand Prize The Comforts of madness Paul Sayer

1987

• Novel The Child in time Ian McEwan
• First Novel The Other garden Francis Wyndham

1986

• Novel and Grand Prize An Artist of the floating world Kazuo Ishiguro
• First Novel Continent Jim Crace

1985

• Novel Hawksmoor Peter Ackroyd
• First Novel Oranges are not the only fruit Jeanette Winterson

1984

• Novel Kruger’s Alp Christopher Hope
• First Novel A Parish of rich women James Buchan

1983

• Novel Fools of fortune William Trevor
• First Novel Flying to nowhere John Fuller

1982

• Novel Young shoulders John Wain
• First Novel On the black hill Bruce Chatwin

1981

• Novel Silver’s city Maurice Leitch
• First Novel A Good man in Africa William Boyd

Previous

• 1980 Novel and Book of the Year How far can you go? David Lodge
• 1979 Novel The Old jest Jennifer Johnston
• 1978 Novel Picture palace Paul Theroux
• 1977 Novel Injury time Beryl Bainbridge
• 1976 Novel The Children of Dynmouth William Trevor
• 1975 Novel Docherty William McIlvanney
• 1974 Novel The Sacred and profane love machine Iris Murdoch
• 1973 Novel The Chip-chip gatherers Shiva Naipaul