Costa Book Awards 2007

This month, the Director of the Costa Book Awards, Bud McLintock, has suggested one of her favourite books from recent times: The Bark of the Dogwood.

"Because of my job, I often get asked for book recommendations and so naturally keep a list of my very favourite books. The most recent and notable addition is The Bark of the Dogwood (A Tour of Southern Homes and Gardens) by Jackson Tippett McCrae.

"The title, cover and blurb give nothing away, but in my view it's a novel with everything – beautifully written, at times it's both very funny and very poignant, with two intertwining storylines, a host of interesting and well-drawn characters, a shocking mystery running through it, and a variety of loose ends that all get satisfactorily drawn together at the end. 

"Most astonishingly for something so assured, it's this author's first novel. I couldn't put it down; it utterly engrossed me and moved me to tears. It'll take a lot for another book to live up to this one - but I live in hope!" 

If you'd like to comment on The Bark of the Dogwood then let us know on the home page blog.

This month, ITN presenter Alastair Stewart puts forward "A Very Unimportant Officer".

"My eldest son, Alexander Stewart, attended Winchester College which is rightly proud of its Garden of Remembrance. It is a dreadful yet beautiful reminder that it wasn't only the playing fields of Eton that gave up the cream of a generation between 1914 and 1918 but the "toys"
of Winchester, as the study rooms there are known, and the classrooms of thousands of other secondary schools, of all types, across the land.

"This remarkable book is the story of another Alexander Stewart, a Captain in the 1st Battalion, the Cameronians, who claims to have been "a very unimportant officer" but who won the Military Cross. 

"The literary inheritance of that long period of global madness and slaughter is ironic: that the beauty of Sassoon and the emotion of Owen could have come from the grime, fear and bloodiness of pointless trench warfare is bizarre.

"But here we have the authentic voice of the type of man who could get through it with dignity, concern for his men and even humour. These diaries are breathtaking in their honesty and, yes, their ordinariness. And yet, as with Common Man in Boult's "Man for All Seasons", here are some of the clanging truths Haig could or would not accept nor Lloyd George subsequently admit to. Ordinary, yes, but far from "unimportant".

"My friend Andrew Roberts' powerful review led me to it. I earnestly encourage you to follow us, "over the top".

If you'd like a chance to win one of five copies of "A Very Unimportant Officer", click here to enter.

Broadcaster, journalist and GMTV presenter Penny Smith has chosen the Costa Book Club's book for September... we think it's well worth a read.

"So, the book that I'm recommending is Mister Pip. From the first chapter, I loved it. It's about a lush island which is in the midst of a hideous civil war. But, weirdly, there's a lot of humour in it. It's beautifully written and very evocative. I can't recommend it highly enough. (The story? About a man who decides to read Great Expectations to the children in the village after their teacher goes to fight with the rebels. When he finishes it, he starts all over again. And then again. Meanwhile, the civil war gets ever closer...)"

Have you read Mister Pip? What did you think? Let the rest of the Costa Book Club know by writing a comment below. Or perhaps you'd like to click here to buy the book?

WIN! We have five copies of Mister Pip to give away - enter the draw before 1st Oct 2008 here to be in with a chance. (Prize draw now closed)

Joanna Trollope, best-selling British author and former Chair of Judges for the Costa Book Awards in 2007, opens our book club with a review of The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay, a story describing the experiences of a group of people on a trip to Turkey.

"No-one much reads her now but she was a literary lioness in her day, and this was her last - and I think, best - book. This novel has echoes of her own life in it - her long and angst- ridden love affair with married man - but besides that (beautifully and poignantly done) this terrific novel is a lyrical travel book, a dissertation on the politics of the Levant, a persuasive treatise on equality of opportunity, a send-up of most religions, and very, very funny. The last paragraphs, about the meaning and power of life, are particularly memorable. And the whole thing is really, really readable."

Have you read the Towers of Trebizond? What did you think? Let us and the rest of the world know by writing a comment below. Or perhaps you'd like to click here to buy the book?