In Nonagenarian News: Costa Award Winners Announced

Last night, just after I had excerpted Michael Dirda's praise ("her easy-going prose and startling honesty are riveting") for Diana Athill's memoir of old age, Somewhere Towards the End, in Old Media Monday, I saw that she had just won the Costa prize for biography. And her win, at age 91, after a lengthy editorial career and a much-belated writing one, leads all the stories on the awards, which, to refresh your memory, used to be called the Whitbreads and are awarded in five categories, out of which a Book of the Year will be named on January 27. Here are the other category winners:

• Novel: The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (which had been a bridesmaid for the Booker)
• First Novel: The Outcast by Sadie Jones
• Poetry: The Broken World by Adam Foulds
• Children's: Just Henry by Michelle Magorian

Here's my earlier post about the nominees, including some further praise of my own for Athill. The Guardian article linked above is full of quotes that show how sportingly UK authors know how to respond to award chatter. Athill admitted she hoped for the prize "because I'm always terribly broke, and how wonderful it would be to get that lovely cheque," and Sadie Jones said about her debut, which has made award shortlists and bestseller lists like, "The book has had so much luck, I'm having all my jam at once." And Barry, when told his novel was the early bookies' favorite to capture the overall prize,  "God bless them," he said. "My dear old grandfather lost four fortunes backing favourites." --Tom