The final judging panel selects the overall Costa Book of the Year from the five category Award winners.
This year's final judging panel includes:
Josephine Hart (Chairman): Novelist
Josephine Hart was born and raised in Ireland. She was a director of Haymarket Publishing, presented Books By My Bedside for Thames TV, and founded Gallery Poets, now The Josephine Hart Poetry Hour at the British Library (also at The Royal Society, The New York Public Library, Harvard and The Donmar Warehouse) at which great actors read great poetry. The Josephine Hart Poetry Hour was recently broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Virago has published two publications with accompanying CDs based on her readings and biographical essays on each poet, 'Catching Life By The Throat', which she funded free of charge to every school in the UK teaching pupils aged between 12 and 18; and Words That Burn which the British Library will shortly transmit via their schools' website. In theatre, her West End productions include the award-winning The House of Bernarda Alba by Lorca, Noël Coward's The Vortex, Iris Murdoch's The Black Prince, and 'Let Us Go Then, You and I' based on the life and work of T.S.Eliot. She is the author of six novels: Damage (filmed by Louis Malle), Sin, Oblivion, The Stillest Day and The Reconstructionist.
Her latest novel - The Truth About Love - was published in 2009. She has been a Booker, Whitbread and Irish Times judge and this year chaired the Forward Poetry Prize. She is married to Maurice Saatchi and has two sons.
Tom Bradby: Political Editor, ITV News
As Political Editor for ITV News, Tom Bradby is renowned for his expert analysis and inimitable interviewing style.
Tom regularly conducts exclusive interviews with the most influential figures in Westminster and the political arena - his interview with John Bercow was shortlisted for the Nick Clarke Award in 2009. Prior to becoming Political Editor, Tom held various roles at ITV News; as Ireland Correspondent, he covered the unfolding peace process, and as Asia Correspondent, he was shot and seriously wounded during a riot in Jakarta. As Royal Correspondent, he made a documentary called 'The Forgotten Kingdom,' which raised large sums used to found Prince Harry's charity in Lesotho.
Outside of Westminster, Tom is a highly-acclaimed author of six novels, three of which have been shortlisted for major awards including CWA Thriller of the Year and Historical Novel of the Year. His latest novel, Blood Money, was published in February of this year.
Tom Fleming: Deputy Editor, Literary Review (representing the Poetry Award category)
Tom Fleming is Deputy Editor of Literary Review. He has written for a number of publications including The Observer, The Spectator, New Statesman and the TLS.
Marie Helvin: Writer and Model
Marie Helvin is often referred to as one of the most beautiful women of our time, and was voted as one of the top 30 Supermodels of all time in Channel 5's 'World's Greatest Supermodel'. Named as 'the face of the Seventies', Marie appeared on the cover of British Vogue no less than seven times. Many of her most memorable images, now classics of fashion photography, were taken by her former husband, David Bailey.
Today, her successful modeling career continues, with recent campaigns including M&S and Agent Provocateur. In addition she has worked for radio and television, including being a judge in the first edition of 'Britain's Next Top Model'.
As well as remaining at the forefront of the fashion industry, Marie is also a successful writer, and has published three books, including her autobiography in 2007.
Sandra Howard: Author (representing the First Novel category)
Sandra Howard (née Paul) was one of the leading photographic fashion models of the 1960s and 70s. She began doing freelance journalism while still modelling and continues to write for the press alongside writing novels, which is now a full-time career.
Her three published titles are Glass Houses (2006), Ursula's Story (2007) and A Matter of Loyalty (2009) and she is presently working on a fourth.
Sandra is a trustee of the drug rehabilitation charity Addiction and Vice-President of the National Centre for Young People with Epilepsy (NCYPE). She is married to the former British Conservative Party leader Michael Howard. They have three adult children and live in her husband's Kent constituency and London.
Gary Kemp: Musician, Actor and Writer
.jpg)
Gary Kemp is a songwriter and guitarist for Spandau Ballet. He also works as an actor on stage and screen. Gary released his first book in 2009, I Know This Much, a self-penned memoir published by Fourth Estate. He lives in central London with his wife and three sons. Photo credit: Andrew Timms
Dervla Kirwan: Actress
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Dervla Kirwan is an actress whose first TV role was in the series Troubles in 1988. She went on to make a number of television appearances including the critically-acclaimed A Time To Dance, adapted by Melvyn Bragg from his own novel. She also starred in the first three series of the very popular Goodnight Sweetheart alongside Nicholas Lyndhurst. She appeared in the hugely successful show, Ballykissangel, and subsequently won the 1996 National TV Award for Best Actress and the Irish Post Award for Best Irish Entertainer.
Since then, Dervla has appeared in a variety of TV, film and stage roles including Casanova, School For Scandal, the 2008 Christmas special of Doctor Who, BBC drama Moving On and Irish film Ondine alongside Colin Farrell. Dervla will appear on television next year in a new episode of ITV's Marple: The Secret of Chimneys and the eagerly-awaited BBC sitcom, Material Girl.
Robert Lacey: Biographer and Historian (representing the Biography category)
Robert Lacey is a British historian noted for his original research, which gets him close to - and often living alongside - his subjects. He is the author of numerous international bestsellers.
After writing his first works of historical biography, Robert, Earl of Essex and Sir Walter Raleigh, Robert wrote Majesty, his pioneering biography of Queen Elizabeth II. Published in 1977, Majesty remains acknowledged as the definitive study of British monarchy. To research The Kingdom, a study of Saudi Arabia published in 1981, Robert and his wife Sandi took their family to live for eighteen months beside the Red Sea in Jeddah. In March 1984, the family moved again to live in Detroit, Michigan, to write Ford: the Men and the Machine, a subsequent bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic.
Robert's other books include biographies of the gangster Meyer Lansky, Princess Grace of Monaco and a study of Sotheby's auction house.
William Nicholson: Writer (representing the Children's Book Award category)
William Nicholson's career started at the BBC, where he worked as a documentary film-maker. His ambition to write was channelled into television drama and his plays for television include Shadowlands and Life Story, both of which won the BAFTA Best Television Drama award in their year.
His first play, an adaptation of Shadowlands for the stage, was Evening Standard Best Play of 1990, and went on to a Tony Award-winning run on Broadway, and he was nominated for an Oscar for the screenplay of the film version. Since then he has written more films including Gladiator (as co-writer), for which he received a second Oscar nomination, and Elizabeth: the Golden Age.
He has written and directed his own film, Firelight, and three further stage plays. His novel for older children, The Wind Singer, won the Smarties Prize Gold Award on publication in 2000, and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award in 2001. Its sequel, Slaves of the Mastery, was published in May 2001, and the final volume in the trilogy, Firesong, in May 2002. The trilogy has been sold in every major foreign market, from the US to China.
His novels for adults include The Society of Others (April 2004) and The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life (May 2009). He lives in Sussex with his wife Virginia and their three children.
Neil Pearson: Actor and Writer (representing the Novel Award category)
Neil Pearson is an actor, bibliophile and the author of Obelisk: A History of Jack Kahane and the Obelisk Press. He lives in London.
Caroline Quentin: Actress
Caroline Quentin is an actress well-known for her performances in Men Behaving Badly, Jonathan Creek and Kiss Me Kate. She has recently filmed the second series of Life of Riley for BBC 1 and Miss Marple - The Mirror Cracked for ITV.
She has starred in five series of Blue Murder and three series of Life Begins for ITV, and has also starred in a number of one-off dramas including Von Trapped, Blood Strangers and Hot Money for Granada, and The Innocent for Yorkshire Television. Recent theatre includes Life After Scandal, directed by Anthony Clark for Hampstead Theatre and Plymouth Theatre Royal.