Two comic-style books have been shortlisted for this year's Costa Book Awards alongside the latest novel by double Man Booker winner Hilary Mantel.
A graphic novel about the mother-son relationship, Days Of The Bagnold Summer, by Joff Winterhart, and a graphic biography of James Joyce's daughter, Dotter Of Her Father's Eyes, by husband and wife Mary M and Bryan Talbot, are both in the running, in a first for the prize.
Earlier this year, Ms Mantel, 60, became the first British writer to win the Man Booker Prize For Fiction twice for her historical novels on Thomas Cromwell.
Bring Up The Bodies, her latest book, is up for best novel at the Costa Book Awards. She faces com- petition from James Meek, who grew up in Dundee, whose The Heart Broke In has been shortlisted.
Winners in five categories receive £5000 each. The overall winner, to be announced on January 29, also takes £30,000.
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