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British Book Awards Shortlist Announced
15 March 2024
The shortlists for the 2024 edition of the British Book Awards, otherwise known as the Nibbies, have been announced. Find out more information about the shortlisted titles below.
Book Of The Year – Fiction
Tackle by Jilly Cooper
Published in Large Print, CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in January 2024.
Rupert Campbell-Black, undefeated racehorse owner and handsomest man in the world, is in the darkest of places. His adored wife Taggie is about to undergo chemotherapy, his beloved horse Love Rat has died, and now his daughter Bianca wants him to buy a languishing local football club so she can return to Rutshire with her star player husband. Rupert's first impressions of Searston Rovers are distinctly unfavourable. As the new owner, he won't stand for anything less than victory in the Premier League, despite the odds being stacked against him. With help from the club's adorable secretary - and rather less from the furious manager - Rupert sets out to mastermind Searston's rise to the top. But the rival football club and their corrupt dealings aren't going to make it easy for him - and they have a history of foul play. Let the sabotage and scandal begin...
Book of the Year - Crime & Thriller
The Secret Hours by Mick Herron
Published in Large Print in December 2023, CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in November 2023.
Two years ago, the Monochrome inquiry was set up to investigate the British secret service. Monochrome's mission was to ferret out misconduct, allowing civil servants Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle unfettered access to confidential information in the service archives. But with progress blocked at every turn, Monochrome is circling the drain...until the OTIS file appears out of nowhere. What classified secrets does OTIS hold that see a long-redundant spy being chased through Devon's green lanes in the dark? What happened in a newly reunified Berlin that someone is desperate to keep under wraps? And who will win the battle for the soul of the secret service - or was that decided a long time ago? Spies and pen-pushers, politicians and PAs, high-flyers, time-servers and burn-outs - they all have jobs to do in the daylight. But what they do in the secret hours reveals who they really are...
The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in November 2023.
Private Detective Cormoran Strike is contacted by a worried father whose son, Will, has gone to join a religious cult in the depths of the Norfolk countryside. The Universal Humanitarian Church is, on the surface, a peaceable organisation that campaigns for a better world. Yet Strike discovers that beneath the surface there are deeply sinister undertones, and unexplained deaths. In order to try to rescue Will, Strike's business partner Robin Ellacott decides to infiltrate the cult and she travels to Norfolk to live incognito amongst them. But in doing so, she is unprepared for the dangers that await her there or for the toll it will take on her...
None Of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
Published in Large Print in August 2023.
Celebrating her 45th birthday at her local pub, podcaster Alix Summer crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie is also celebrating her 45th birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins. A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix's children's school. Josie has been listening to Alix's podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for the series. She is, she says, on the cusp of great changes in her life. Alix agrees to a trial interview. Josie's life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can't quite resist the temptation to keep digging. Slowly, Alix starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets. Before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix's life - and into her home...
The Last Devil To Die by Richard Osman
Published in Large Print in August 2023.
You'd think you would be allowed to relax over Christmas...but not in the world of the Thursday Murder Club. On Boxing Day, a dangerous package is smuggled across the English coast. When it goes missing, chaos is unleashed. The body count starts to rise - including someone close to the Thursday Murder Club - as our gang face an impossible search and their most deadly opponents yet. With the clock ticking down and a killer heading to Coopers Chase, has their luck finally run out? And who will be the last devil to die?
Book of the Year – Pageturner
The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
Published in Large Print in January 2023.
On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found... For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives. But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder...where nothing is as it seems.
Book of the Year - Début Fiction
Talking At Night by Claire Daverley
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook in December 2023.
Will and Rosie meet as teenagers. They're opposites in every way. She overthinks everything; he is her twin brother's wild and unpredictable friend. But over secret walks home and late-night phone calls, they become closer - destined to be one another's great love story. Until, one day, tragedy strikes, and their future together is shattered. But as the years roll on, Will and Rosie can't help but find their way back to each other. Time and again, they come close to rekindling what might have been. What do you do when the one person you should forget is the one you just can't let go?
Book Of The Year – Non-Fiction: Narrative
Spare by Prince Harry
Published in Large Print, CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in May 2023.
Before losing his mother Diana, twelve-year-old Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled with anger, with loneliness - and, blaming the press for his mother's death, with life in the spotlight. Whilst the discipline of the British Army gave him structure, he soon felt more lost than ever. Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple's romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, they were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, Harry saw no other way to prevent history repeating itself but to flee the Royal Family. Now he tells his story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.
Book of the Year - Non-Fiction: Lifestyle & Illustrated
Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken
Published in Large Print in February 2024.
We have entered a new age of eating where most of our calories come from an entirely novel set of substances called Ultra-Processed Food: food which is industrially processed, and designed and marketed to be addictive. But do we really know what it's doing to our bodies? Join Chris in his travels through the world of food science and a UPF diet. Find out why exercise and willpower can't save us, and what UPF is really doing to our bodies, our health, our weight, and the planet (hint: nothing good). For too long we've been told we just need to make different choices, when really we're living in a food environment that makes this nigh-on impossible. So this is a book about our rights. The right to know what we eat, and what it does to our bodies - and the right to good, affordable food.
Book of the Year - Audiobook Non-Fiction
Spare by Prince Harry
Published in Large Print, CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in May 2023.
Before losing his mother Diana, twelve-year-old Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled with anger, with loneliness - and, blaming the press for his mother's death, with life in the spotlight. Whilst the discipline of the British Army gave him structure, he soon felt more lost than ever. Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple's romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, they were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, Harry saw no other way to prevent history repeating itself but to flee the Royal Family. Now he tells his story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.
Book of the Year - Audiobook Fiction
The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in November 2023.
Private Detective Cormoran Strike is contacted by a worried father whose son, Will, has gone to join a religious cult in the depths of the Norfolk countryside. The Universal Humanitarian Church is, on the surface, a peaceable organisation that campaigns for a better world. Yet Strike discovers that beneath the surface there are deeply sinister undertones, and unexplained deaths. In order to try to rescue Will, Strike's business partner Robin Ellacott decides to infiltrate the cult and she travels to Norfolk to live incognito amongst them. But in doing so, she is unprepared for the dangers that await her there or for the toll it will take on her...