Costa, the UK's largest and fastest-growing coffee shop chain, has announced the Costa Book Awards 2008 winners in the Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book categories.

Revealed tonight on BBC Radio 4's Front Row programme by this year's Chair of Judges, Matthew Parris, they are...

* Sadie Jones, whose bestselling debut novel, The Outcast, scoops the Costa First Novel Award
* Sebastian Barry, who triumphs in the Costa Novel Award category for The Secret Scripture
* Diana Athill, who wins the Costa Biography Award for her memoir, Somewhere Towards the End.  At the age of  91, Diana is the oldest-ever category-winning author in the history of the Book Awards
* Adam Foulds wins the Costa Poetry Award with his debut work of poetry about the Mau Mau uprisings in Kenya, The Broken Word
* Michelle Magorian, the popular author of Goodnight Mr Tom, who wins the Children's Book Award for Just Henry, her first new book in ten years.

For further deatils visit the Costa Book Awards website here