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Stef Penney wins Costa book award Debut novelist wins Costa award
(about 1 hour later)
The Costa Book of the Year award, formerly the Whitbread Prize, has been won by Stef Penney. London author Stef Penney has won the Costa Book of the Year award for her debut novel, the Tenderness of Wolves.
Five authors had won separate categories last month before going head-to-head for the top £25,000 prize. The book is set in Canada - a country the author has never visited because she had agoraphobia.
Penney, aged 37 from east London, had previously won the first book award and scooped the overall prize for her novel The Tenderness of Wolves. The award - formerly the Whitbread Prize - pits five winners of separate categories against each other for the Book of the Year.
Armando Iannucci, the chairman of the judges, said Penney's work was an "extraordinary first novel". Penney, aged 37 and a screenwriter, won the "first book" award before scooping the top £25,000 prize.
He also described it as testament "to the power of good writing" and said all the judges "felt The Tenderness of Wolves is a very successful and special book". I'm supposed to be a writer but I don't know how to describe how I feel Stef Penny Of the other short-listed authors, William Boyd had won best novel for his spy story Restless, while Brian Thompson's Keeping Mum had taken the biography prize.
It is the fourth time that a debut novel has won Book of the Year, since its inception in 1985.
Penney's book follows a 19th Century couple who leave Scotland as part of the Highland Clearances and emigrate to a remote part of Canada.
The author, who was once agoraphobic, wrote the entire novel without travelling to Canada, relying only on research carried out at the British Library.
Of the other short-listed authors, William Boyd had won best novel for his spy story Restless, while Brian Thompson's Keeping Mum had taken the biography prize.
John Haynes won the poetry prize, and best children's book went to Linda Newbery for Set in Stone.John Haynes won the poetry prize, and best children's book went to Linda Newbery for Set in Stone.
Nominee William Boyd won the Whitbread first novel award in 1981 After her name was read out, a shocked Penney said: "I'm still shaking. I'm supposed to be a writer but I don't know how to describe how I feel."
Newbery, who writes in a hut at the bottom of her garden, wrote a book aimed at young adults, which follows an artist who uncovers a dangerous family mystery while tutoring two young girls. 'Good writing'
Boyd picked up the best novel award 25 years after he was given the Whitbread first novel prize for A Good Man in Africa. Penney's book follows a 19th Century couple who leave Scotland as part of the Highland Clearances and emigrate to a remote part of Canada.
The author, who has also written for film and television, was appointed a CBE in 2005. The author relied on research carried out at the British Library.
Seventy-one-year-old Thompson's Keeping Mum: A Wartime Childhood recalls his upbringing by working class parents in 1940s Cambridge and London. She said: "Just because you go somewhere it doesn't mean that you have a peculiar or vivid or insightful take on the place.
Haynes' poetry triumph denied Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney an unprecedented third win. "Every story takes place in the landscape of the imagination.
Penney was named overall winner on Wednesday night in a black tie ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. "Regarding this wide, open landscape which I find quite alarming, maybe it's even more vivid because I couldn't go and look at it and see how mundane it really is."
Penney, who now has her fear of open spaces under control, said of her agoraphobia: "It's not a distant memory. I don't think it ever goes away completely. I can fly but it's still a bit of a big deal when I'm travelling."
She added that she had started writing a second book - this time set in Britain.
Hundreds submitted
Armando Iannucci, the chairman of the judges, said Penney's work was an "extraordinary first novel".
He described it as testament "to the power of good writing" and said: "Within about 50 pages I was completely in love with it."
A total of 580 books were submitted for the prize, which was won last year by Hilary Spurling for her biography Matisse the Master.A total of 580 books were submitted for the prize, which was won last year by Hilary Spurling for her biography Matisse the Master.
It is the fourth time that a debut novel has won Book of the Year, since its inception in 1985.