Final Judging Panel: 2014 Costa Book of
the Year
Robert Harris (Chairman): Author
Robert Harris is the author of nine bestselling novels: Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel,
Pompeii, Imperium, The Ghost, Lustrum, The Fear Index, and An Officer and A Spy. His
next novel, Dictator, due to be published in 2015, is the much-anticipated
conclusion to the Cicero trilogy.
Several of his books have been filmed, most recently The Ghost, which was directed
by Roman Polanski. His work has been translated into thirty-seven languages. He
lives in west Berkshire with his wife Gill Hornby and their children.
Samantha Bond: Actor
Samantha Bond was brought up in London and trained at Bristol Old Vic
Theatre School. She is best known for her roles as Miss Moneypenny in the
James Bond films during the Pierce Brosnan years, as Auntie Angela in the BBC
comedy Outnumbered, Lady Rosamund Painswick in Downton Abbey and as the
original Ms Liz Probert in Rumpole of the Bailey.
Her recent theatre credits include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Savoy Theatre) and What the Butler Saw
(Vaudeville), her TV credits include Distant Shores, Fanny Hill, Midsomer Murders, Larkrise to Candleford and
Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, whilst her film credits include Bunch of Amateurs and Blinded.
Bernardine Evaristo MBE: Writer (representing the
Novel Award category)
Bernardine Evaristo is the author of seven books of fiction and verse fiction,
most recently Mr Loverman about a closet-gay Caribbean Londoner aged 74
which won a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize in 2014. Two of her books have
been adapted into BBC Radio 4 dramas since 2012. She is a literary critic,
teaches creative writing at Brunel University, and has judged many leading literary awards as well as
winning several. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2004, the Royal Society of
Arts in 2006, and an MBE in 2009.
Wendy Moore: Author and Freelance Journalist
(representing the Biography Award category)
Wendy Moore is an author and freelance journalist. Her first book The Knife
Man, a biography of the 18th century surgeon John Hunter, was published in
2005. It inspired a pilot for a TV series, Knifeman, currently being developed by
AMC with Tom Hollander and Daniel Mays in lead roles. Her second book,
Wedlock, was published in 2009 and was picked for Channel 4’s TV Book
Club, reaching no 1 in the Sunday Times bestseller list. Her third, How to
Create the Perfect Wife, came out last year. She is currently working on a novel
and a fourth non-fiction book. Wendy is a fellow of the Royal Literary Fund.
Maggie O’Farrell: Writer (representing the First Novel
Award category)
Maggie O'Farrell is the author of six novels: After You’d Gone, My Lover’s
Lover, The Distance Between Us, which won a Somerset Maugham Award, The
Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, The Hand That First Held Mine, which won the
2010 Costa Novel Award, and Instructions for a Heatwave, which was
shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Novel Award. She lives in Edinburgh.
Robert Peston: BBC Economics Editor
Robert Peston is the BBC's Economics Editor and founder of the education
charity, Speakers for Schools (www.speakers4schools.org). He has written
three books, How Do We Fix This Mess, Who Runs Britain, and Brown’s Britain.
Peston has won numerous awards for his journalism, including Journalist of
the Year from the Royal Television Society. His blog is
bbc.co.uk/robertpeston and he is @peston on Twitter.
Dame Diana Rigg: Actress
Diana Rigg trained at RADA. Her very extensive theatre credits include All
About My Mother (Old Vic), Phedre & Brittanicus (Albery Theatre), Who’s Afraid of
Virgina Woolf (Almeida), Medea (Almeida & Broadway: Tony Award for Best
Actress & Evening Standard Award for Best Actress), Sondheim’s Follies
(Shaftesbury Theatre), Pygmalion (Albery Theatre) Her television credits include
Game of Thrones (Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama
Series), Doctor Who, Extras, Rebecca (Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress),
Mother Love (BAFTA Award for Best Actress), Hedda Gabler and ‘Emma Peel’ in
The Avengers. Her film credits include The Painted Veil, A Good Man In Africa, Evil Under The Sun, A Little Night
Music and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Diana was made a CBE in 1988 and a Dame in 1994.
Owen Sheers: Poet and Author (representing the Poetry
Award category)
Owen Sheers has written two collections of poetry, The Blue Book and Skirrid
Hill, which won a Somerset Maugham Award. His verse drama Pink Mist won
Wales Book of the Year and the Hay Festival Poetry Medal. His non-fiction
includes The Dust Diaries and Calon: A Journey to the Heart of Welsh Rugby. His first
novel Resistance has been translated into ten languages and was made into a film
in 2011. His plays include The Passion, The Two Worlds of Charlie F. and Mametz.
Owen wrote and presented BBC Four's A Poet's Guide to Britain. He has been a NYPL Cullman Fellow,
Writer-in-Residence for the Wordsworth Trust and Artist-in-Residence for the Welsh Rugby Union. His
second novel, I Saw a Man, will be published by Faber in 2015.
Jonathan Stroud: Author (representing the Children’s Book
Award category)
Jonathan Stroud is an author who writes for children and young adults. He is the
author of the bestselling Bartimaeus sequence, which is published in 36 languages
and won the 2006 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature, the 2006
Corinne Award, Germany, and the 2007 Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire.
His new series, Lockwood & Co, was launched in 2013 to critical acclaim and won
four literary awards with a further seven shortlistings. Jonathan lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and
two children.