Galaxy British Book Awards 2008

The Galaxy British Book Awards 2008 took place on 9th April 2008 at The Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London, SW1

The event was hosted by Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan and broadcast on Channel 4 at 4.40pm on Sunday 13th April

Please find winners highlighted in red below

Prime Minister Gordon Brown praised Harry Potter author J K Rowling last night as she received an award for Outstanding Achievement at the Galaxy British Book Awards.  The Prime Minister said: ‘She has joined a distinguished line of British authors whose work has got the whole country reading, and whose books will be read for many years to come by successive generations.’

The Prime Minister also praised the multi-millionaire author for her contributions to charities, but always “in a quiet way”. The celebrity-studded audience at last night’s ‘Nibbies’ awards gave her a standing ovation.  Commenting on the award, which is sponsored by The Book People, J K Rowling said ‘I really am thrilled to be receiving an Outstanding Achievement Award.  And quite pleased that I haven’t been pensioned off just yet with a Lifetime Achievement Award.  The Nibbies mean an enormous amount to me, and to be recognised in this way is a real honour.’

The publishing industry also honoured veteran author Doris Lessing with a standing ovation for a career that included the award to her last year of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Lessing was shortlisted for the Reader’s Digest Author of the Year for her novel, The Cleft, but the title went to Ian McEwan for his bestselling novel, On Chesil Beach. The Award was presented by Lord Attenborough.

The climax of the evening was the presentation of the Galaxy Book of the Year by Jonathan Ross to Ian McEwan for his novel, On Chesil Beach. The award was accepted on McEwan’s behalf by actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who starred in the film Atonement. The Galaxy Book of the Year is awarded to the book that has made an outstanding impact both within the book industry and beyond.  It is a bestseller that has created wide media attention and has encouraged more people to read and buy books.  The Galaxy Book of the Year was chosen by a bi-partisan executive group from the Academy of the British Book Industry.

WINNERS & NOMINEES:

Reader's Digest Author of the Year
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Khaled Hosseini
Doris Lessing
Ian McEwan
David Peace

Tesco Biography of the Year Award
Agent Zigzag by Ben MacIntyre (Bloomsbury)
The Blair Years by Alastair Campbell (Hutchinson)
My Booky Wook by Russell Brand (Hodder & Stoughton)
On The Edge by Richard Hammond (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Spilling the Beans by Clarissa Dickson Wright (Hodder & Stoughton)

Books Direct Crime Thriller of the Year Award
Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child (Bantam Press)
Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell (Little, Brown)
Exit Music by Ian Rankin (Orion)
The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid (Harper)
The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke (Orion)

Waterstone's Newcomer of the Year Award
Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (Bloomsbury)
What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn (Tindal Street Press)
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney (Quercus)
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Doubleday)

Sainsbury's popular Fiction Award
An Absolute Scandal by Penny Vincenzi (Headline Review)
The Ghost by Robert Harris (Hutchinson)
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton (Pan)
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin)
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Bloomsbury)

PLAY.COM Popular Non-Fiction Award
Don't Stop Me Now by Jeremy Clarkson (Michael Joseph)
A History of Modern Britain by Andrew Marr (Macmillan)
Long Way Down by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman (Sphere)
Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson (Chatto & Windus)
The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane (Granta Books)

Richard and Judy's Best Read of the Year Award
Blood River by Tim Butcher (Chatto & Windus)
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)
Notes From an Exhibition by Patrick Gale (Fourth Estate)
A Quiet Belief in Angels by R J Ellory (Orion)
Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann (Black Swan)
The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris (Viking)
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Bloomsbury)
The Visible World by Mark Slouka (Portobello Books)
The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies (Sceptre)

WHSMITH Children;s Book of the Year Award
Born to Run by Michael Morpurgo (HarperCollins)
That’s Not My Penguin by Fiona Watt (Usborne)
My Pony Care Book by Katie Price (Random House)
Kiss by Jacqueline Wilson (Random House)
Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman by Francesca Simon (Orion)

The Book People Outstanding Achievement Award
JK Rowling