Lorraine Kelly presented the awards. Image: Getty
Yesterday evening saw us don our glad rags and join some of this year’s best-selling authors at a glitzy London hotel for the Oscars of the book industry, hosted by Lorraine Kelly.
We spotted lots of our favourite celeb authors, including Great British Bake-Off queen and cookbook supremo Mary Berry, who was just beaten to the WH Smith Food & Drink Book of The Year by the Hairy Bikers’ Hairy Dieters book. We spied Mary having a good old chat with one of our fave women of 2012, Clare Balding, who bagged the Autobiography/Biography Of The Year gong for My Animals And Other Family.
Clare Balding and Miranda Hart show off their awards. Image: Elliott Franks
It was a great evening for female authors, with women winning seven out of the 10 categories. The lovely Miranda Hart picked up the award for Popular Non-Fiction Book Of The Year with Is It Just Me?. While Fifty Shades Of Grey author EL James couldn’t make the ceremony, she did nab the Specsavers Popular Fiction Book of The Year, beating both JoJo Moyes for Me Before You and Victoria Hislop for The Thread.
David Walliams celebrates winning his award. Image: Elliott Franks
One of the biggest cheers of the evening was for David Walliams, who took home the Children’s Book Of The Year award, while one of our favourite books of the year, The Snow Child, won International Author Of The Year for Alaskan Eowyn Ivey.
We had a brilliant evening all rounded off with a glass (or two!) of champagne to celebrate what has been a record year for books. Congratulations to everyone who was nominated and to all the winners – see the full list here.
And don’t forget, you can vote for your favourite book from all the winners last night for the overall Book Of The Year award – just click here to vote and the winner will be announced on December 26.
