Whitbread Book of the Year Award

Given to a book published in English in the UK. An award is given in each of five categories: first novel, novel, poetry, children's book, and biography. A nine-member judging panel then chooses from among the category winners the Book of the Year.

2005 - Matisse The Master by Hilary Spurling
2004 - Small Island by Andrea Levy
2003 - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
2002 - Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self by Claire Tomalin
2001 - The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
2000 - English Passengers by Matthew Kneale
1999 - Beowulf by Seamus Heaney
1998 - Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes
1997 - Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes
1996 - The Spirit Level by Seamus Heaney
1995 - Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
1994 - Felicia’s Journey by William Trevor
1993 - Theory of War by Joan Brady
1992 - Swing Hammer Swing! by Jeff Torrington
1991 - A Life of Picasso by John Richardson
1990 - Hopeful Monsters by Nicholas Mosley
1989 - Coleridge: Early Visions by Richard Holmes
1988 - The Comforts of Madness by Paul Sayer
1987 - Under the eye of the clock by Christopher Nolan
1986 - An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
1985 - Elegies by Douglas Dunn
1984 - A Parish of Rich Women by James Buchan
1983 - Flying to Nowhere by John Fuller
1982 - On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin
1981 - A Good Man in Africa by William Boyd
1980 - How Far Can You Go? by David Lodge