The Costa Book Awards 2013 were published last night with the youngest witness in the Lady Chatterley trial receiving a posthumous nomination for her book Unexpected Lessons in Love. The judges described by the book as an ‘unflinching, darkly funny story of love, obsession and illness that is unexpected in every way’. Sounds intriguing!

The other nominees in the fiction category are: Kate Atkinson for the well reviewed Life After Life which explores the idea of getting the chance to live life over again, Maggie O’Farrell for Instructions for a Heatwave which deals with the disappearance of a father and the consequences for the family left behind and Evie Wyld for All the Birds, Singing, a story about a woman who disappears  into a hermit-like existence to escape her past. We will find out in January who wins.