Costa Book Of The Year final judges named

The nine people who will sit on the final judging panel for the 2010 Costa Book Of The Year have been named.

Broadcaster and journalist Andrew Neil has been confirmed as the chair of the panel, which will meet on January 25th 2011 to decide the overall winner of the Costa Book Awards.

Representatives of the judging groups for the five categories of the awards will also sit on the final panel, with Adele Parks speaking for novels, Juliet Nicolson championing biography books, Ruth Padel arguing for poetry, Tim Bowler stating the case for children's books and Anneka Rice supporting first novels.

The panel is completed by David Morrissey, Elizabeth McGovern and Natasha Kaplinsky.

John Derkach, managing director of Costa, commented: 'We're delighted to have as our final judging panel nine passionate readers who we know will, between them, do an excellent job of selecting the 2010 Costa Book of the Year.'

Works currently on the shortlists of the 2010 Costa Book Awards include The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell, Sarah Bakewell's How to Live, Sharon Dogar's Annexed, Of Mutability by Jo Shapcott and Nikesh Shukla's Coconut Unlimited.