Costa Book Awards

The Costa Book Awards honored books by writers based in the United Kingdom and Ireland, favoring titles that combined literary quality with broad appeal to readers. They began in 1971 as the Whitbread Book Awards, named for the brewing and restaurant company that sponsored them, and took the Costa name in 2006 after Costa Coffee, then a Whitbread subsidiary, became the sponsor.

From 1985 the awards followed a Book of the Year format. Judges first chose winners in separate categories, usually novel, first novel, biography, poetry and children's book, and those category winners then competed for the overall Costa Book of the Year, which carried the largest prize. Results came early in the year. Costa Coffee ended the awards in June 2022, so the ceremony held in February 2022, honoring books from 2021, was the fiftieth and last.

English-language books by writers based in the United Kingdom or Ireland, published during the year before each ceremony.