2018 has been a stellar year for UK authors and tonight's Books Are My Bag Readers Awards are proof of that.
The event, sponsored by National Book Tokens, is the only awards curated by booksellers and voted for by the public.
This year there were over 55,000 votes across all categories with Gail Honeyman's best-selling Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine being named as the UK's favourite book for 2018.
Honeyman's debut novel won the Reader's Choice category, which calls on readers to nominate and vote for their favourite book of the year.
It was a night of celebrations for many debut authors as Stuart Turton claimed the Novel Award for his first book, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, and an anonymous debut author won the Non-Fiction Award for their confessional, The Secret Barrister.
While debuts dominated the awards, Sir Philip Pullman won the Young Adult category for The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage and Pam Ayres MBE took home the inaugural Poetry award for The Last Hedgehog.
Emma Bradshaw, Head of Campaigns at the Booksellers Association, said in a statement: “From first time authors to literary giants, this year’s Books Are My Bag Readers Awards winners give an insight into bookseller’s and the public’s top books of the year. It’s hugely exciting to see such a large proportion of new writers on the list, showing just how much brilliant new writing talent readers have to enjoy.”
You can see the full list of winners below:
- Readers’ Choice: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (HarperCollins)
- Non-Fiction: The Secret Barrister by The Secret Barrister (Picador)
- Novel: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (Bloomsbury)
- Poetry: The Last Hedgehog by Pam Ayres, illustrated by Alice Tait (Picador)
- Young Readers – YA: The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman (Penguin Random House Children's and David Fickling Books)
- Young Readers - Middle Grade: The Storm Keeper's Island by Catherine Doyle (Bloomsbury)
- Breakthrough Author: Sarah J. Harris (The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder) (HarperCollins)
- Beautiful Book: Virago Modern Classics 40th anniversary series, designed by Hannah Wood, illustrated by Yehrin Tong (Virago, Little Brown)
- Outstanding Contribution to Bookselling: Vivian Archer, manager at Newham Bookshop
