Press

Press Release

01/27/2009
SEBASTIAN BARRY WINS 2008 COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR

Irish author Sebastian Barry has won the 2008 Costa Book of the Year award for The Secret Scripture, a moving account of one woman's stolen life and her journey to reclaim the past.  The announcement was made this evening (Tuesday 27th January) at an awards ceremony held at the InterContinental Hotel in central London.

The Costa Book Awards recognise the most enjoyable books of the last year by writers based in the UK and Ireland.  Originally established by Whitbread PLC in 1971, Costa announced its takeover of the sponsorship of the UK's prestigious and popular book prize in 2006.

Barry, the bookmaker's odds-on favourite, won against one of the most acclaimed collections of finalists in the Book Awards history beating 91 year-old author Diana Athill for her memoir Somewhere Towards the End, bestselling first-time novelist Sadie Jones for The Outcast, poet and writer Adam Foulds for The Broken Word and popular children's writer Michelle Magorian for Just Henry, to win the overall prize and a cheque for £25,000 at the glittering awards ceremony.

Following the judging, Matthew Parris, chair of the final judges, said: "Sebastian Barry has created one of the great narrative voices in contemporary fiction in The Secret Scripture. It is a book of great brilliance, powerfully and beautifully written."

The Secret Scripture, published by Faber and Faber, is the ninth novel to take the overall prize. A. L. Kennedy was the last author to win the Book of the Year with a novel taking the prize in 2007 for Day.

Since the introduction of the Book of the Year award in 1985, it has been won eight times by a novel, four times by a first novel, five times by a biography, five times by a collection of poetry and once by a children's book.

For more information please visit www.costabookawards.com.

- Ends -

For further press information or to arrange an interview with Sebastian Barry, please contact:

Amanda Johnson
Costa Book Awards Press and Publicity
Telephone: 020 7751 2069 (direct line) or 07715 922180 (mobile)
Email:  amanda@amandajohnsonpr.com

Or

Kate Burton
Faber and Faber
Email: kate.burton@faber.co.uk
Telephone: 020 7465 7554


Notes for Editors:

* The Costa Book Awards, formerly the Whitbread Book Awards, were established in 1971 to encourage, promote and celebrate the best contemporary British writing.
* The total prize fund for the Costa Book Awards stands at £50,000.
* The award winners from the five categories - Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book - each receive £5,000.
* The overall Costa Book of the Year is selected from the five category Award winners with the winner receiving a further £25,000. 
* The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Intercontinental Hotel, central London on 27th January, 2009.
* To be eligible for the 2008 awards, books must have been first published in the UK or Ireland between 1 November 2007 and 31 October 2008.
* The 2007 winner of the Costa Book of the Year was A. L. Kennedy for Day (Cape).


About Costa:
* Costa is now officially the largest and fastest growing coffee shop chain in the UK.  It opened its 1000th milestone store in March 2008 in Moscow.
* Costa was founded by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa in 1971. With 866 stores in the UK and over 300 internationally, Costa has enjoyed a remarkable period of growth since it opened its first store.  It now operates in 25 countries.
* In November 2008, The Times reported that Costa Coffee topped a survey which asked over 1000 'concerned consumers' which brand they thought did the most to tackle social and environmental issues. 
* Costa Coffee was the first UK coffee shop chain to commit sourcing beans from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms. 
* Costa's in-store baristas are all coached in the art of coffee making at the company's unique Costa Coffee Academy based at its own roastery in Lambeth, London.
* Costa has been voted as one of the strongest UK brands by experts and consumers and has been awarded 'Superbrand' status
* Costa set up a registered charity (no.327489) in 2006 called 'The Costa Foundation' to give something back to the communities within the countries from which Costa sources its coffee beans.

 

Further Background

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
Faber and Faber

About the book:
Roseanne McNulty, perhaps nearing her 100th birthday - no one is quite sure - faces an uncertain future, as the Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital where she's spent the best part of her adult life prepares for closure. Over the weeks leading up to this upheaval, she talks often with her psychiatrist Dr Grene. Told through their respective journals, the story that emerges is at once shocking and deeply beautiful. Refracted through the haze of memory and retelling, Roseanne's story becomes an alternative, secret, history of Ireland.

About the author:
Sebastian Barry is a playwright and novelist who was born in Dublin in 1955. His novels include The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty (1998), Annie Dunne (2002) and A Long Long Way (2005), which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Dublin International Impac Prize.  He has won many awards including the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Prize, the London Critics Circle Award and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Prize. His plays include The Steward of Christendom (1995), Our Lady of Sligo (1998) and The Pride of Parnell Street (2007). Barry lives in Wicklow with his wife and three children.

What the judges said:
"This exquisitely written love story takes you on an unforgettable journey - you won't read a better book this year."

Judges
Dan Fenton    Director, John Sandoe (Bookshop) Limited
Pauline McLynn   Actress and Writer
Matthew Sweet    Writer and Broadcaster

Shortlist, selected from a total of 144 entries:

Chris Cleave
The Other Hand
Sceptre
Louis de Berni?res
A Partisan's Daughter
Harvill Secker
Patrick McGrath
Trauma
Bloomsbury


Previous Novel Award winners include:

A.L. Kennedy - Day - 2007

William Boyd - Restless - 2006

Ali Smith - The Accidental - 2005

Andrea Levy - Small Island - 2004

Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - 2003

Michael Frayn - Spies - 2002


Previous Winners of the
Book of the Year

 

2007
Day - A.L. Kennedy - Novel

2006
The Tenderness of Wolves - Stef Penney -First Novel

2005
Matisse: the Master - Hilary Spurling - Biography

2004
Small Island - Andrea Levy -Novel

2003
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon - Novel

2002
Samuel Pepys:The Unequalled Self  - Claire Tomalin -Biography

2001
The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman - Children's Book

2000
English Passengers - Matthew Kneale - Novel

1999
Beowulf - Seamus Heaney - Poetry

1998
Birthday Letters - Ted Hughes - Poetry

1997
Tales from Ovid - Ted Hughes - Poetry

1996
The Spirit Level - Seamus Heaney - Poetry

1995
Behind the Scenes at the Museum - Kate Atkinson - First Novel

1994
Felicia's Journey - William Trevor - Novel

1993
Theory of War -Joan Brady - Novel

1992
Swing Hammer Swing! - Jeff Torrington - First Novel

1991
A Life of Picasso
John Richardson
Biography

1990
Hopeful Monsters - Nicholas Mosley - Novel

1989
Coleridge: Early Visions - Richard Holmes - Biography

1988
The Comforts of Madness - Paul Sayer - First Novel

1987
Under the Eye of the Clock - Christopher Nolan - Biography

1986
An Artist of the Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro - Novel

1985
Elegies - Douglas Dunn - Poetry


 

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