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The Book Trade Awards TheYA Book Prize The British Book Design and Production Awards
TheBritish Book Awards orNibbies areliterary awards for the best UK writers and their works, administered byThe Bookseller. The awards have had several previous names, owners and sponsors since being launched in 1990, including theNational Book Awards from 2010 to 2014.
The British Book Awards, or Nibbies, ran from 1990 to 2009 and were founded by the editor ofPublishing News.[1] The awards were then acquired byAgile Marketing, which renamed them the National Book Awards and called them theGalaxy National Book Awards (2010–2011) and later theSpecsavers National Book Awards (2012–2014) after their headline sponsors.[2] There were no National Book Awards after 2014;[3] in 2017 the awards were acquired byThe Bookseller from the estate ofPublishing News' founder, Fred Newman, and renamed back to the British Book Awards or Nibbies.[1]
In 2018, a Specsavers National Book Awards ceremony was held on 20 November but was unrelated to the Nibbies.[4][5]
In 2005,The Bookseller launched a separate scheme, The Bookseller Retail Awards (winners not listed in this article). In 2010, running parallel to the National Book Awards,The Bookseller unified The Nibbies with its retail awards to produceThe Bookseller Industry Awards (winners not listed in this article).[1]
The awards are known as theNibbies because of the goldennib-shaped trophy given to winners.[6]
Margaret Atwood received the Freedom to Publish Award at the 35th British Book Awards on May 12, 2025, in London. In her videotaped acceptance comments, the Canadian author reflected on current threats to free expression, noting she couldn't remember a time "when words themselves felt under such threat" due to increasing political polarization, and urged publishers and booksellers to have courage in defending free expression.[7]
The shortlisted nominees were announced on 8 March 2024.[11][12][13] Once again the in-person ceremony was livestreamed.[14]Katherine Rundell was named Author of the Year, the first time that a children's writer received the accolade sincePhilip Pullman in 2018.[15] In the run up to the awards ceremony, a daily podcast featuring nominated authors was made available online.[16]
The shortlisted nominees were announced on 17 March 2023.[19][20][21] Once again the in-person ceremony was livestreamed.[22] In 2023 the Non-fiction: Lifestyle Book of the Year category was expanded to include Illustrated books.
Salman Rushdie was recognised with a special Freedom to Publish honour.[23] It is only the second time that the British Book Awards regime has conferred this prize, previously being awarded in 2022 toHarperCollins UK and its publishing director Arabella Pike "in recognition of their defense of [their] authors against interference from Russian oligarchs, and for their 'robust defense of investigative non-fiction and publishing in the public interest."[24]
The shortlisted nominees were announced on 25 March 2022.[27][28][29] This year marked the return to the first live awards ceremony since 2019 but was also broadcast as alivestream.[30]
A new category of Discover Book of the Year was introduced aiming to showcase traditionally underrepresented authors with a particular focus on the work of indie presses and imprints.[28] Alongside this, also new for 2022, was a split of the Children's Awards into non-fiction and illustrated, in addition to the fiction award, and a split of the Audiobook of the Year award into Fiction audiobook of the Year and Non-fiction audiobook of the Year.
The shortlisted nominees were announced on 19 March 2021.[34][35] Once again the ceremony was held online due to the continuing restrictions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. It took place on 13 May 2021 at the Battersea Arts Centre, London.[36]
This year saw the addition of a new award category: Page-turner of the Year.[37]
The shortlisted nominees were announced on 20 March 2020.[42] Due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, the live event due to be held on 18 May 2020 was cancelled and the ceremony was held online over a month later in June 2020.[43][44] This year's ceremony was named Event of the Year at the 2020 Independent Publisher Awards.[37]
In celebration of the Nibbies' 30th anniversary, 2020 saw a special award called "30 from 30" to celebrate the best of the best, where a longlist of 30 previous winners was narrowed down by a public poll to a shortlist of 10 nominees, plus a wildcard entry (This Is Going to Hurt byAdam Kay), that had not taken home a trophy in the past.[42][45]
2020 was a notable year for the Nibbies in that except for illustratorAxel Scheffler, who won with his longtime co-creatorJulia Donaldson, the programme's entire slate of authorial honours went to women and the Book of the Year and Author of the Year categories had their first ever black winners.[46][47][48]
The shortlisted nominees were announced on 22 March 2019. The awards were now simplified into just two divisions, Books of the Year (the Nibbies) and The Trade Awards.[54][55]
2019 saw the Children's Book of the Year category split into two categories: Children's Fiction Book of the Year and Children's Illustrated and Non-fiction Book of the Year.[56] This year also sawBecoming, the memoir by former first ladyMichelle Obama winning two awards.
The shortlisted nominees were announced on 16 March 2018.[63][64][65] Again the awards comprised four divisions: Books of the Year (the Nibbies), Great People, Bringing Books to Readers and Publishing Success.
New categories of Author of the Year, Illustrator of the Year were added this year. Audiobook of the Year and an award for Overall Book of the Year from all the category winners were also reintroduced after being omitted in 2017.[66] This year also saw a joint winner for the Children's Book of the Year category.
The shortlisted nominees were announced on 15 March 2017 at theLondon Book Fair. The awards comprised four divisions: Books of the Year (the Nibbies), Great People, Bringing Books to Readers and Publishing Success. For the first Nibbies since 2014, the ceremony was expanded, Crime and Thriller titles regained their own category (previously called the Crime Thriller of the Year and changed to Thriller and Crime Novel of the Year in 2011), while non-fiction was split into Narrative and Lifestyle.[71] The Newcomer of the Year / New Writer of the Year award was renamed Debut Book of the Year and The Popular Fiction award which had changed to Popular Fiction Book of the Year in 2010 was renamed simply as Fiction Book of the Year in this year.
Prior to 2010 the Best was a unique winner. Starting in 2010, the Best was chosen by the public via open internet vote from among the winning books in the other categories. The category was resurrected in 2018.
Previously called Popular Fiction Award. Name changed to Popular Fiction Book of the Year in 2010 and subsequently to Fiction Book of the Year in 2017.
Previously called the Crime Thriller of the Year. Name changed to Thriller & Crime Novel of the Year in 2011 and subsequently to Crime & Thriller Book of the Year in 2017.
^"About the awards".nationalbookawards.co.uk. Archived fromthe original on 19 November 2012. Retrieved5 November 2012.Before 2010 the awards were known as the British Book Awards. Specsavers became the sponsor of the 2012 awards, the new deal follows the previous 5-year partnership with Galaxy.
^"Home page". National Book Awards. Archived fromthe original on 4 November 2016.There will be no event during 2015 and no date yet set for title submissions.
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