Mantel wins Costa for Bring Up The Bodies
Hillary Mantel
British writer Hilary Mantel made literary history as she won the prestigious Costa Book of the Year Award for her second book, Bring Up The Bodies, in her trilogy on Thomas Cromwell.
Mantel, who became the first woman to win the Booker prize twice, has now become the first writer to win both the Costa Book of the Year Award and the Booker Prize in the same year. Mantel was a bookie favourite to win the overall prize.
The jury chose Mantel as the winner unanimously. “One book simply stood head and shoulders, more than head and shoulders … on stilts, above the rest. We had a really good discussion, like being at a high-powered book club, and I said, ‘OK, let’s have a vote on Bring Up The Bodies,’ and every hand went up,” said Dame Jenni Murray, chair of the jury, which included actress Jenny Agutter, broadcaster Katie Derham and writer D.J. Taylor.
“I’m not sorry, I’m happy and I shall make it my business to try to write more books that will be worth more prizes,” Mantel said after the award was announced
“I was writing for many, many years and I was not among the prizes at all or I was a perpetual runner-up, and things have changed in a big way. Things have changed in a big way, I feel my luck has changed, but of course that’s not true. What’s changed is what I’m working on, possibly a project that’s played to my strengths and a project that came along just when I was ready for it,” Mantel said.
The Costa Awards, formerly known as the Whitbread Book Awards, are unique in giving prizes for best novel, first novel, biography, poetry and children’s book. Mantel had won the best novel prize earlier this month and she grabbed the top prize ceremony held at Quaglino’s in central London on Tuesday night.
The overall Costa Book of the Year is selected from the winners of five categories, which have four shortlisted books and the winner in each receives £5,000. The overall winner gets the £30,000 prize.
The Costa Awards has a female winner in each of the categories for the first time ever. Mantel defeated completion from husband-wife team of Mary and Bryan Talbot, who had won in the biographic category for their graphic memoir, Dotter of her Father’s Eyes, about writer James Joyce’s daughter. It is the first-ever graphic work to win a Costa Award.
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