2015 Costa Book of the Year: Final Judging Panel

2015 Costa Book of the Year:
Final Judging Panel
James Heneage (Chairman): Writer, Founder of Ottakar’s
Bookshops and Chalke Valley History Festival
James Heneage founded the Ottakar's bookshop chain which grew to 150 shops
before being sold to Waterstones in 2005. Since then, he has been a Man Booker
Prize judge, chaired the Cheltenham Literary Festival and started his own Chalke
Valley History Festival. He has written three historical novels set at the end of
the Byzantine Empire and is now completing a fourth.
Jane Asher: Actress and Author
Jane Asher has been working professionally in film, theatre and radio since she
was five years old. She has worked extensively in both the National Theatre and
the West End, and most recently appeared on stage in The Gathered Leaves at the
Park Theatre, London. She has just finished filming the second series of BBC
TV’s Eve, and will next be seen in Crossing Lines with Donald Sutherland on
Netflix in early 2016. Jane has written over two dozen baking and lifestyle books,
and three bestselling novels.
Martyn Bedford: Writer (representing the Children’s Book
Award category)
Martyn Bedford’s debut novel for young adults, Flip (Walker Books, 2011), won
four regional prizes and was shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award.
His second, Never Ending, was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and his third,
Twenty Questions for Gloria, is being published in spring 2016 in the UK, the US,
Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands.
He is also the author of five novels for adults, including the award-winning Acts
of Revision, and numerous short stories. Between them, his books have been
translated into fifteen languages. A former journalist and graduate of the MA in
Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, Martyn is a senior lecturer in the English Department at
Leeds Trinity University. He lives in West Yorkshire with his wife and two teenage daughters.
Katy Brand: Writer, Comedian and Actor
Katy Brand is an award-winning writer, comedian and actor. She has
appeared in films (Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang), TV shows (Peep Show, QI,
Psychobitches), radio programmes (Mouth Trap, Infinite Monkey Cage, News Quiz)
and live events (Victoria Wood’s Angina Monologues, The Twitter Joke Trial Benefit
Gig). Between 2007 and 2009 she wrote and performed her own ITV sketch
show - Katy Brand’s Big Ass Show - taking it out on a live UK tour in 2010. She
was a columnist for Reveal magazine for three years, and went on to write a
weekly column for the Daily Telegraph. Her debut novel, Brenda Monk is Funny,
was published in 2014.
Julia Copus: Poet and Children’s Author (representing
the Poetry Award category)
Julia Copus is a poet and children’s author. All three of her collections are
Poetry Book Society Recommendations and she’s won First Prize in the
National Poetry Competition and the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem.
The World's Two Smallest Humans was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize and
the 2013 Costa Poetry Award. From 2005, she has worked as a Fellow and
Advisory Fellow for the Royal Literary Fund. In 2008 she was made an
Honorary Fellow at the University of Exeter.
Louise Doughty: Novelist (representing the Novel
Award category)
Louise Doughty is the author of seven novels, including Apple Tree Yard
which has been translated into 23 languages worldwide, and Whatever You
Love, shortlisted for the 2010 Costa Novel Award and longlisted for the
Orange Prize for Fiction. She has also won awards for radio drama and
fiction, is a critic and cultural commentator for UK and international
newspapers, and broadcasts regularly for the BBC.
Janet Ellis: Actress, Broadcaster and Writer
Janet trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She has
appeared in theatres up and down the country and on TV in everything from
Dr Who and The Sweeney to Jigsaw. She presented Blue Peter for four years in
the eighties and, since leaving, has worked as an actress, presenter,
broadcaster and writer. She is a frequent contributor to radio and TV and is
a regular panellist on Channel 5's The Wright Stuff. Her first novel, The
Butcher's Hook, will be published by Two Roads in February 2016. She has
three children and four grandchildren. And a dog.
Matt Haig: Writer (representing the First Novel Award
category)
Matt Haig has written several novels including his bestselling debut, The Last
Family in England, The Radleys and The Humans. He is also the author of awardwinning children's novels and his new children’s bestseller, A Boy Called
Christmas, is out now and tells the story of Father Christmas as a boy. His most
recent book, Reasons to Stay Alive, is a non-fiction bestseller about his
recovery from depression.
Penny Junor: Journalist, Writer and Broadcaster
(representing the Biography Award category)
Penny Junor is a writer and broadcaster. She is the author of many bestselling
biographies including ones of both the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince
William and two British Prime Ministers. She also co-wrote bestselling
autobiographies of Pattie Boyd and Sir Cliff Richard. For many years she
presented The Travel Show on BBC2 and Channel 4’s award-winning consumer
programme, 4 What It’s Worth. She is married with children and grandchildren
and lives in Wiltshire.