The Whitbread Awards (since 2006 called the Costa Book Awards) are among the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary awards. They were launched in 1971, are given both for high literary merit but also for works that are enjoyable reading and whose aim is to convey the enjoyment of reading to the widest possible audience. This page gives details of the awards given in the year 2004.

Dates

• Thursday 6 January 2005 - Award winners announced in all five categories
• Tuesday 25 January 2005 - Announcement of the Whitbread Book of the Year

Book of the Year

• Andrea Levy, Small Island

Children's Book

Winner:

• Geraldine McCaughrean, Not the End of the World

Shortlist:

• Anne Cassidy, Looking for JJ
• Geraldine McCaughrean, Not the End of the World
• Meg Rosoff - How I Live Now
• Ann Turnbull - No Shame, No Fear

First Novel

Winner:

• Susan Fletcher, Eve Green

Shortlist:

• Susanna Clarke , Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
• Richard Collins, The Land as Viewed from the Sea
• Susan Fletcher, Eve Green
• Panos Karnezis, The Maze

Novel

Winner:

• Andrea Levy, Small Island

Shortlist:

• Kate Atkinson, Case Histories
• Louis de Bernières, Birds Without Wings
• Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty
• Andrea Levy, Small Island

Biography

Winner:

• John Guy, My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots

Shortlist:

• John Guy, My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots
• David McKie, Jabez - The Rise and Fall of a Victorian Rogue
• John Sutherland, Stephen Spender
• Jeremy Treglown, V.S. Pritchett: A Working Life

Poetry

Winner:

• Michael Symmons Roberts, Corpus

Shortlist:

• Leontia Flynn, These Days
• John Fuller, Ghosts
• Matthew Hollis, Ground Water
• Michael Symmons Roberts, Corpus