See the full list of nominees for the Costa book awards below:

Novel
Sebastian Barry for Days Without End
Maggie O’Farrell for This Must Be the Place
Sarah Perry for The Essex Serpent
Rose Tremain for The Gustav Sonata

First novel
Susan Beale for The Good Guy
Kit de Waal for My Name Is Leon
Guinevere Glasfurd for The Words in My Hand
Francis Spufford for Golden Hill

Biography
Keggie Carew for Dadland: A Journey Into Uncharted Territory
John Guy for Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years
Hisham Matar for The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between
Sylvia Patterson for I’m Not With the Band: A Writer’s Life Lost in Music

Poetry
Melissa Lee-Houghton for Sunshine
Alice Oswald for Falling Awake
Denise Riley for Say Something Back
Kate Tempest for Let Them Eat Chaos

Children's books
Brian Conaghan for The Bombs That Brought Us Together
Patrice Lawrence for Orangeboy
Francesca Simon for The Monstrous Child
Ross Welford for Time Travelling With a Hamster

Female writers are totally dominating at this year’s Costa book awards