The first book in 10 years by Michelle Magorian, author of the successful children�s novel Goodnight Mister Tom, is among this year�s winners of the Costa Books of the Year.

The first book in 10 years by Michelle Magorian, author of the successful children's novel Goodnight Mister Tom, is among this year's winners of the Costa Books of the Year.

Magorian won the Children's Book Award for Just Henry, winning a category prize alongside Sebastian Barry, Sadie Jones, Diana Athill and Adam Foulds.

Barry triumphed in the Novel Award category for The Secret Scripture after missing out on the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in October.

Athill won the Biography Award for her memoir Somewhere Towards the End and, at the age of 91, is the oldest-category-winning author in the history of the awards.

Originally established in 1971 by Whitbread, Costa took over the sponsorship of the literary prizes in 2006. They are arranged into five categories and the final book of the year is chosen from the winners of these groups.

The final Costa Book of the Year - last year won by the Scottish writer AL Kennedy for Day - will be selected by a panel of judges chaired by columnist and broadcaster Matthew Parris and including Rosamund Pike and Michael Buerk.

The winners, each of whom receive £5000, were selected from 616 entries, the highest number so far for the awards.

Set in post-war Britain, Just Henry is the story of a boy who finds escapism through his passion for cinema.

Magorian was born in Portsmouth and began writing regularly while studying at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in Kent. She studied mime with Marcel Marceau, worked in theatre, television and film, and toured her one-woman mime show in Italy and England.

Her most famous novel, Goodnight Mister Tom, won numerous awards and has sold more than 1.2 million copies in the UK as well as being made into a TV show.

Sadie Jones won the First Novel Award for The Outcast, also shortlisted for the 2008 Orange Prize and selected as a Richard and Judy Summer Read and Adam Foulds wins the Poetry Award for The Broken Word.