NOMINEES FOR COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR ANNOUNCED

NOMINEES FOR COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR ANNOUNCED

The five nominees for the Costa Book of the Year prize have been announced and include 91-year-old Diana Athill.

Athill's Somewhere Towards the End is shortlisted among efforts from Sadie Jones, Sebastian Barry, Adam Foulds and Michelle Magorian.

The five authors have each won £5,000 for winning the Costa Book awards individual categories and the overall winner of the Book of the Year accolade - as well as a £50,000 prize - will be unveiled on January 27th.

"We're very proud to be announcing such an outstanding collection of books which we know people will enjoy reading," said John Derkach, managing director of Costa.

"It makes for a very exciting awards ceremony later this month."

Athill took the Biography of the Year prize for her memoir which the judging panel described as "candid, detailed, charming and... beautifully, beautifully written".

Jones' The Outcast - the winner of the First Novel category - was labelled "riveting and heartbreaking" for its tale of a former prisoner's return to his home in late 50s England.

Magorian - a "master storyteller" - won the Children's Book prize for the "soaring, uplifting" Just Henry, while Foulds' The Broken Word, the winner of the poetry prize, was praised for its "chilling narrative".

Barry is the favourite to claim the Book of the Year prize for his "exquisitely written love story" The Secret Scripture, having missed out on the Man Booker Prize to Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger.