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Helen Macdonald wins Costa Book of the Year 2014

By Lucy Brooks on 27/1/2015

With the Costa Book Award category winners already out, the overall winner of Book of the Year 2014 was given to Helen Macdonald. 

Helen Macdonald wins Costa Book of the Year 2014

The Costa Book Awards 2014 Highlights


Costa Book of the Year, 2014 and Costa Biography Award Winner, 2014

H for Hawk, Helen Macdonald

Nine publishers battled over Emma Healey’s debut book, Elizabeth is Missing: a mystery novel narrated by the housebound Maud, who suffers from Dementia. Maud finds among her things a relic from her past- a compact mirror- which she recognizes as significant, but isn’t sure why. From here, Maud attempts to assemble the fragments of memory, all the while haunted by her old friend Elizabeth, as the narrative glides between the present day and the post-war years.To choose an Alzheimer’s patient as protagonist was incredibly risky, yet Healey never strays into gimmick territory. Rather, the holes and lapses in the narrative become an intelligent plot device. Well-written and masterfully shaped, this debut announced Healey as one to watch closely.


Costa Poetry Award Winner, 2014

My Family and Other Superheroes, Jonathan Edwards


Recently, the face of prize-winning verse has been fairly glum. With My Family and Other Superheroes, however, Welsh poet Jonathan Edwards has tickled the toes of the poetry world: his collection is funny, light and gently self-mocking. The poems take us on a guided tour of postindustrial working-class Welsh life, with the help of ‘superheroes’ Evil Knievel, Sophia Loren, a nun on a bicycle, Valley mothers and hippopotamuses. A joy, with a measure of seriousness on the side. But not too much.



Costa Children's Book Award Winner 2014

Five Children on the Western Front, Kate Saunders - ages 8+

Nathan Filer's debut novel delivers the titular fall on the very first page: as a child Matthew killed his brother and the rest of the story is built upon the subtle yet searing shock of this trauma as it shapes his life thereafter. Alongside his creative writing course, Filer worked in a psychiatric unit and the intimate insight into this little understood world resounds. As the schizophrenic narrator remarks: 'mental illness turns people inwards' and, while it creates a touching portrait of fragile family relationships and enough intrigue to keep you up reading until the end, it is the tenderness and honesty with which the narrative exposes this insularity that makes The Shock of the Fall so captivating.
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