The Scottish poet, and Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, is in the running for the title of Book of the Year after winning a leading prize for her latest collection.
Ms Duffy, born in Gorbals, Glasgow, has won the Costa Poetry Award for The Bees and is now on the short list for the prestigious Book of the Year title, which will be announced later this month.
She has been given odds of 3/1 to win the prize, along with Andrew Miller for his novel Pure, while the favourite is Matthew Hollis for his biography Now All Roads Lead to France.
Christie Watson won the First Novel award for Tiny Sunbirds Far Away, while Moira Young won the children's book award for Blood Red Road.
Originally established in 1971 by Whitbread, Costa took over the sponsorship of the book prize in 2006, and 2011 marks the 40th year of the Book Awards.
The Bees is Ms Duffy's first collection since being appointed Poet Laureate in 2009.
The five Costa Book Award winners, each of whom will receive £5,000, were selected from 568 entries.
The five selected books are now eligible to go forward for the Costa Book of the Year, with the overall winner being given a further £30,000.
The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony in London on January 24.
The Bees finds Duffy using "her full poetic range", according to the awards statement yesterday.
"There are drinking songs, love poems, poems to the weather, poems of political anger – there are elegies, too, for beloved friends and most movingly, the poet's own mother," it says.
The judges said: "We were thrilled by the poet's musical feeling for language and her spellbinding ability to combine naturalness and formal complexity. It's a joyful collection."
John Derkach, managing director of Costa, said: "We're very proud to be announcing such a terrific collection of books which we know people will enjoy reading."
The total prize fund for the Costa Book Awards is £55,000.
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