THE WHITBREADS ARE BACK!

2005 WHITBREAD BOOK AWARDS

ONCE AGAIN, the battle for the best books begins! This time, it is for the 2005 Whitbread Awards, one of United Kingdom’s top literary prizes, for the best novel, first novel, biography, poetry and children’s book. Literary heavyweights John Banville, Julian Barnes, Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian McEwan are not in the running at all. Sebastian Barry and Zadie Smith are not on it. But Ali Smith is on it. And Salman Rushdie has been included as well. Tash Aw, Diana Evans and Peter Hobbs are on the shortlist for the best first novel. And there are David Harsent (who has already won the 2005 Forward Prize for his collection, Legion) and Christopher Logue for poetry and Hilary Spurling for biography.

NOVEL
A Long Way Down (Viking) / Nick Hornby
Shalimar the Clown (Jonathan Cape) / Salman Rushdie
The Accidental (Hamish Hamilton) / Ali Smith
The Ballad of Lee Cotton (Little, Brown) / Christopher Wilson

FIRST NOVEL
The Harmony Silk Factory (Harper Perennial) / Tash Aw
26a (Chatto & Windus) / Diana Evans
The Short Day Dying (Faber & Faber) / Peter Hobbs
Gem Squash Tokoloshe (Pan Macmillan) / Rachel Zadok

BIOGRAPHY
Haw-Haw (Macmillan) / Nigel Farndale
Nature Cure (Chatto & Windus) / Richard Mabey
Stuart: A Life Backwards (Fourth Estate) / Alexander Masters
Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse: The Conquest of Colour, 1909-1954 (Hamish Hamilton) / Hilary Spurling

POETRY
Legion (Faber & Faber) / David Harsent
Cold Calls (Faber & Faber) / Christopher Logue
Lucky Day (Carcanet) / Richard Price
Marabou (Carcanet) / Jane Yeh

CHILDREN’S BOOK
Framed (Macmillan) / Frank Cottrell Boyce
The White Darkness (Oxford University Press) / Geraldine McCaughrean
Permanent Rose (Hodder Headline) / Hilary McKay
The New Policeman (Bodley Head) / Kate Thompson

The winners of the five categories will be announced on January 4, 2006 and then do battle for the Whitbread Book of the Year on January 24, 2006