Politics, nature, romantasy and vampires are to the fore on the shortlists for The British Book Awards 2025, celebrating its 35th year with multiple nominations for David Nicholls, Jamie Smart, Sarah J Maas, Gillian Anderson, Boris Johnson, Percival Everett and Dav Pilkey. From memoirs and retellings to ancient worlds; from love stories and murder mysteries to graphic novels, nature books, classics, cookery and even some poyums; from time-travel and spuds to wants and butter; from swifties and penguins to poonamis and chess, the selected titles examplify the best of the book business.
The shortlists, which celebrate bestselling books well published, well sold and critically acclaimed, pitch well-known names, such as Chris and Rosie Ramsey, Stanley Tucci, Pete Wicks, Susie Dent, Sir Chris Hoy and Miranda Hart against established writers Sally Rooney, Colm Tóibín, Percival Everett and Jacqueline Wilson. Meanwhile, AF Steadman, Lynda La Plante and Sophie Kinsella join Nicholls, Everett and Maas in the first publicly announced shortlist for Author of the Year, as past winner Smart vies with Pilkey, Jim Field, Mariajo Ilustrajo, Oliver Jeffers and Rob Biddulph for the Illustrator accolade.
The awards also reflect the politics of the moment, with Johnson, Alexei Navalny, Zeinab Badawi, Musih Tedji Xaviere, George Orwell’s 1984, and the pseudonymous writer Lai Wen, shortlisted. Nature and wildlife are also high on the agenda across both adult and children’s fiction awards, from the popular Raising Hare, to The World to Come, to Nicholls’ You Are Here, to Hamza’s Wild World, to Caroline Quentin’s first book Drawn to the Garden.
Bestselling literary heavyweights will go head-to-head in one of the most hotly contested Book of the Year – Fiction shortlists to date. Rooney’s fourth novel Intermezzo (Faber) will challenge Tóibín’s long-awaited follow up to Brooklyn, Long Island (Picador), beloved children’s author Wilson’s first adult novel, Think Again (Bantam), as well as All Fours (Canongate) by Miranda July, James (Mantle) by Everett, and Nicholls’ You Are Here (Sceptre) to achieve the top spot.
Everett and Nicholls are among a highly celebrated group of writers this year with multiple nominations across the Book of the Year shortlists. Both authors have been shortlisted for Author of the Year, alongside La Plante, Steadman, Kinsella and the queen of fantasy Maas, who has also been shortlisted for Book of the Year – Pageturner for House of Flame and Shadow (Bloomsbury Publishing).
Philip Jones, editor of The Bookseller and chair of The British Book Awards, comments: “The British Book Awards shortlists showcase all of the talents: books nurtured by their authors, amplified by their publishers, shepherded by booksellers, and loved by readers. In these lists we see the contours of the year past and of the months to come, we see books that reflect, represent and reveal the world around us. These writers and illustrators thrill, challenge, inform, shock and entertain in equal measure – I am in total admiration and, yes, awe for the all-hands effort that creates such success.”
Showcasing the enormous range and depth of modern publishing, these prestigious awards celebrate the whole journey of a book, from the author’s mind to the reader’s hand. There are 13 Book of the Year Awards (below) – Children’s Illustrated, Children’s Non-Fiction, Children’s Fiction, Fiction, Debut Fiction, Crime & Thriller, Pageturner, Non-Fiction: Lifestyle and Illustrated, Non-Fiction: Narrative, Audiobook: Fiction, Audiobook: Non-Fiction, Discover, as well as the Overall Book of the Year.
A full shortlist has been announced for Author of the Year and Illustrator of the Year for the first time in 2025.
The 13 Book of the Year winners will be decided by separate panels, with judges including Mary Portas, Vogue Williams, Bonnie Garmus, Reeta Chakrabarti and Radzi Chinyanganya.
Produced by The Bookseller, The British Book Awards, also known as the Nibbies, are the UK’s definitive celebration of books and reading. This year’s winners will be unveiled at a ceremony taking place at JW Marriott Grosvenor House, London, on Monday 12th May 2025.
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Author of the Year
Sarah J Maas (Bloomsbury Publishing )
Sophie Kinsella (Transworld, Penguin Random House)
David Nicholls (Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton)
Percival Everett (Picador, Pan Macmillan)
AF Steadman (Simon & Schuster Children’s Books)
Lynda La Plante (Zaffre, Bonnier Books UK)
Illustrator of the Year
Dav Pilkey (Scholastic)
Mariajo Ilustrajo (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, Quarto)
Jim Field (Orchard Books, Hodder Children’s Books, Hachette Children’s Group)
Jamie Smart (Phoenix Comic Books, David Fickling Books)
Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins Children’s Books, HarperCollins)
Rob Biddulph (HarperCollins Children’s Books, HarperCollins)
Fiction
All Fours by Miranda July (Canongate)
You Are Here by David Nicholls (Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton)
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Faber)
Long Island by Colm Tóibín (Picador, Pan Macmillan)
James by Percival Everett (Mantle, Pan Macmillan)
Think Again by Jacqueline Wilson (Bantam, Transworld)
Debut Fiction
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton)
The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey (Hutchinson Heinemann, Cornerstone)
Green Dot by Madeleine Gray (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Orion)
Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon (Fig Tree, Penguin General)
When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A Parker (HarperVoyager, HarperCollins)
Butter by Asako Yuzuki, translated by Polly Barton (4th Estate, HarperCollins UK)
Crime & Thriller
Hunted by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker, Vintage)
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman (Viking, Penguin General)
All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker (Orion Fiction)
Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? by Nicci French (Simon & Schuster)
The Wrong Sister by Claire Douglas (Penguin Michael Joseph)
Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent (Zaffre, Bonnier Books UK)
Discover
These Letters End in Tears by Musih Tedji Xaviere (Jacaranda)
An African History of Africa by Zeinab Badawi (WH Allen, Ebury)
Out on a Limb by Hannah Bonam-Young (Bedford Square Publishers)
poyums by Len Pennie (Canongate)
Fragile Animals by Genevieve Jagger (404 Ink)
Tiananmen Square by Lai Wen (Swift Press)
Pageturner
Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes (Penguin Michael Joseph)
Daydream by Hannah Grace (Simon & Schuster)
Our Fair Lily by Rosie Goodwin (Zaffre, Bonnier Books UK)
House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J Maas (Bloomsbury Publishing)
The Christmas Tree Farm by Laurie Gilmore (One More Chapter, HarperCollins)
Faebound by Saara El-Arifi (HarperVoyager, HarperCollins UK)
Children’s Fiction
The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson (Electric Monkey, Farshore)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hot Mess by Jeff Kinney (Puffin, Penguin Random House Children’s)
Reckless by Lauren Roberts (Simon & Schuster Children’s Books)
I Am Rebel by Ross Montgomery (Walker Books)
A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal (First Ink, Pan Macmillan)
The Majorly Awkward BFF Dramas of Lottie Brooks by Katie Kirby (Puffin, Penguin Random House Children’s)
Children’s Illustrated
Jonty Gentoo: The Adventures of a Penguin by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler (Alison Green Books, Scholastic)
Dog Man: The Scarlet Shedder by Dav Pilkey (Scholastic)
There’s a Poonami in My House by Chris and Rosie Ramsey, illustrated by Paula Bowles (Gallery Kids, Simon & Schuster Children’s Books)
Bunny vs Monkey: The Great Big Glitch by Jamie Smart (Phoenix Comic Books, David Fickling Books)
Pablo and Splash by Sheena Dempsey (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
Letters from the North Pole by Annie Atkins, illustrated by Fia Tobing (Magic Cat Publishing)
Children’s Non-Fiction
The History of Information by Chris Haughton (DK)
Little People, Big Dreams: Taylor Swift by Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara, illustrated by Borghild Fallberg (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, Quarto)
Hamza’s Wild World by Hamza Yassin, illustrated by Louise Forshaw (Macmillan Children’s Books, Pan Macmillan)
The World to Come by Robert Macfarlane and Johnny Flynn, illustrated by Emily Sutton (Magic Cat Publishing)
Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back by Isabella Tree, illustrated by Angela Harding (Macmillan Children’s Books, Pan Macmillan)
Science is Lit by Big Manny, illustrated by Subi Bosa (Puffin, Penguin Random House Children’s)
Non-Fiction Lifestyle & Illustrated
Spud Man’s Spudtacular Baked Potato Cookbook by Spud Man (HarperNorth, HarperCollins UK)
Drawn to the Garden by Caroline Quentin (Frances Lincoln, Quarto)
What I Ate in One Year by Stanley Tucci (Fig Tree, Penguin General)
A Better Second Half by Liz Earle (Yellow Kite, Hodder & Stoughton)
Greekish by Georgina Hayden (Bloomsbury Publishing)
So Good by Emily English (Seven Dials, Orion)
Non-Fiction: Narrative
Want by Gillian Anderson & anonymous (Bloomsbury Publishing)
All That Matters by Sir Chris Hoy (Hodder & Stoughton)
Patriot by Alexei Navalny, translated by Arch Tait & Stephen Dalziel (The Bodley Head, Vintage)
Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton, illustrated by Denise Nestor (Canongate)
I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest with You by Miranda Hart (Penguin Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House)
Unleashed by Boris Johnson (William Collins, HarperCollins)
Audiobook: Non-Fiction
Never Enough: My Words Unfiltered by Pete Wicks (Hodder Catalyst, Hodder & Stoughton)
Unleashed by Boris Johnson (William Collins, HarperCollins)
Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari, narrated by Vidish Athavale (Penguin Audio, Penguin Random House)
Sociopath by Patric Gagne (Bluebird, Pan Macmillan)
Want by Gillian Anderson & anonymous (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Henry V by Dan Jones (Apollo, Head of Zeus)
Audiobook: Fiction
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig, narrated by Joanna Lumley & Jordan Stephens (Canongate)
The Hotel Avocado by Bob Mortimer, narrated by Bob Mortimer, Paul Whitehouse, Sally Phillips & Julie Maisey (Simon & Schuster)
Bunny vs Monkey by Jamie Smart, narrated by Ciaran Saward (Bolinda Audio)
1984 by George Orwell, adapted by Joe White, narrated by Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, Tom Hardy, Chukwudi Iwuji, Romesh Ranganathan, Natasia Demetriou, Francesca Mills, Alex Lawther, Katie Leung (Audible Original )
My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes (Penguin Audio, Penguin Random House)
You Are Here by David Nicholls, narrated by Lee Ingleby and Lydia Leonard (WF Howes)
