The five category winners of the Costa Book Awards 2013 include novelist Kate Atkinson and biographer Lucy Hughes-Hallett
Costa Book Awards 2013: Lucy Hughes-Hallett, left, and Kate Atkinson have both won their £5,000 categories and will now battle it out for the £30,000 Costa Book of the Year 2013 Photo: David Hartley/Rex; Andrew Crowley
Life After Life, Atkinson’s eighth novel, has scooped its first major prize after being announced winner of the prestigious novel category on Monday night.
In 1995, she won Book of the Year at the same prize, then known as the Whitbread, for her debut novel, Behind The Scenes At The Museum.
The prize, which had 617 entries this year, is now divided into five categories: first novel, novel, biography, poetry and children's book.
The winners of each, selected from a shortlist by judges, are all eligible for the final Book of the Year award, due to be announced later this month.
If Atkinson goes on to triumph in the overall prize, she will become the first woman to win it twice. Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes are currently the only two authors who have won the prize two times.
If Atkinson goes on to triumph in the overall prize, she will become the first woman to win it twice. Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes are currently the only two authors who have won the prize two times.
Atkinson has already followed in the footsteps of William Boyd, who won the first novel award in 1981 and the novel award in 2006, and Jim Crace, who took best debut novel in 1986 and best novel in 1997.
The winners of each category receive £5,000 and the overall winner gets a further £30,000 at this month's ceremony in central London.
The Costa, formerly the Whitbread, is open to authors resident in the UK and Ireland.
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The winners of each category receive £5,000 and the overall winner gets a further £30,000 at this month's ceremony in central London.
The Costa, formerly the Whitbread, is open to authors resident in the UK and Ireland.
More