The Bookseller · award year

British Book Awards 2021

The 2021 British Book Awards went to The Highland Falcon Thief by M. G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman (Children's Fiction Book of the Year), Black and British: A short, essential history by David Olusoga (Children's Illustrated & Non-Fiction Book of the Year) and Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith (Crime & Thriller Book of the Year), with winners in 6 more categories. 49 books made the shortlist across 9 categories.

Winners

Children's Fiction Book of the Year

  1. The Highland Falcon Thiefsource (opens in a new tab)

Children's Illustrated & Non-Fiction Book of the Year

  1. Black and British: A short, essential historysource (opens in a new tab)

Crime & Thriller Book of the Year

  1. Troubled Bloodsource (opens in a new tab)

Debut Book of the Year

  1. Shuggie Bainsource (opens in a new tab)

Fiction Book of the Year

  1. Hamnetsource (opens in a new tab)

Non-Fiction: Lifestyle Book of the Year

  1. Skincare: The Ultimate No-Nonsense Guidesource (opens in a new tab)

Non-Fiction: Narrative Book of the Year

  1. Diary of a Young Naturalistsource (opens in a new tab)

Overall Book of the Year

  1. Shuggie Bainsource (opens in a new tab)

Pageturner Book of the Year

  1. Where the Crawdads Singsource (opens in a new tab)

Shortlist

Children's Fiction Book of the Year

  1. Anisha, Accidental Detectivesource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Code Name Bananassource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Dragon Mountainsource (opens in a new tab)
  4. The Danger Gangsource (opens in a new tab)
  5. The Ickabogsource (opens in a new tab)

Children's Illustrated & Non-Fiction Book of the Year

  1. Draw with Robsource (opens in a new tab)
  2. I'm Sticking With Yousource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Kay's Anatomysource (opens in a new tab)
  4. The Book of Hopesource (opens in a new tab)
  5. The Lost Spellssource (opens in a new tab)

Crime & Thriller Book of the Year

  1. A Song for the Dark Timessource (opens in a new tab)
  2. The Guest Listsource (opens in a new tab)
  3. The Patient Mansource (opens in a new tab)
  4. The Sentinelsource (opens in a new tab)
  5. The Thursday Murder Clubsource (opens in a new tab)

Debut Book of the Year

  1. Exciting Timessource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Ghostssource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Rainbow Milksource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Such A Fun Agesource (opens in a new tab)
  5. The Girl With the Louding Voicesource (opens in a new tab)

Fiction Book of the Year

  1. The Evening and the Morningsource (opens in a new tab)
  2. The Lying Life of Adultssource (opens in a new tab)
  3. The Midnight Librarysource (opens in a new tab)
  4. The Mirror & the Lightsource (opens in a new tab)
  5. The Vanishing Halfsource (opens in a new tab)

Non-Fiction: Lifestyle Book of the Year

  1. Five Minute Mum: Give Me Fivesource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Nadiya Bakessource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Not a Diet Booksource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Think Like a Monksource (opens in a new tab)
  5. What Mummy Makes: Cook just once for you and your babysource (opens in a new tab)

Non-Fiction: Narrative Book of the Year

  1. A Life on Our Planetsource (opens in a new tab)
  2. A Promised Landsource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Entangled Lifesource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Me and White Supremacysource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Tomorrow Will Be A Good Daysource (opens in a new tab)

Pageturner Book of the Year

  1. All the Lonely Peoplesource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Darkdawnsource (opens in a new tab)
  3. False Valuesource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Just My Lucksource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Rag and Bone Christmassource (opens in a new tab)

About the British Book Awards

Book of the Year categories only, shortlists plus winners. Audiobook categories and awards to people (Author, Illustrator, International Author, deciBel Writer, Outstanding Achievement) are skipped. Run as the Galaxy British Book Awards (2006-2009), Galaxy National Book Awards (2010-2011), Specsavers National Book Awards (2012-2014) and, under The Bookseller, the British Book Awards or Nibbies (2017-). No awards were held in 2015 or 2016. Year is the ceremony year: spring for 2006-2009 and 2017-2025, November-December for 2010-2014. Category names follow each era's own. For 2010-2014 Book of the Year was a public vote among that year's category winners, which are recorded as its shortlist; 2008-2009 Book of the Year and 2018-2025 Overall Book of the Year record the winner only, chosen from the category winners. Sources: The Bookseller and the official awards sites (archived on web.archive.org) where available; otherwise press coverage (The Guardian, The Independent, Publishing Perspectives, BBC, the awards' PR agency Taylor Herring) and, for 2013 Popular Fiction and Crime shortlists, a crime-fiction blog. 2017-2025 shortlists were transcribed from Wikipedia and each title checked against the cited page. 2013 Biography, Children's, Food & Drink and Popular Non-Fiction record winners only; the shortlists could not be recovered.

Organization: The Bookseller. Years are award years, which can differ from publication years. Official site (opens in a new tab)

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