WHITBREAD has announced the 2004 Whitbread Book Award winners in the categories of Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book.

The awards, which were established by the UK's leading hospitality business in 1971, aim to celebrate the most enjoyable books of the last year by writers based in the UK and Ireland.

The five successful authors who will now contest for the Whitbread Book of the Year are:

2004 Orange Prize winner Andrea Levy for Small Island in the Novel Award category.

Susan Fletcher for Eve Green, who wins the First Novel Award.

My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots by John Guy, which claims the Biography Award.

Award-winning radio writer and documentary filmmaker, Michael Symmons Roberts, who wins the Poetry Award with Corpus.

Triple Children's Book Award winner, Geraldine McCaughrean, for Not the End of the World

The winner will be announced on January 25 and for the second year running, members of the public can vote via the Whitbread Book Awards website, www.whitbreadbookawards.co.uk.

Walks writer

steals a march

The Inn Way - to Black Sheep Pubs by Northern Echo walks writer Mark Reid (InnWay Publications, £6.95) has been selected as one of the Six of the Best guides by The Times. To meet the extra demand generated by this, Mark has brought out a revised, second edition of the book, for which he re-walked all the routes - a total of 204 miles, including 77 pubs. "I've been out in all weathers - most of them wet! It has been five years since I first began to research the 25 walks in this book and I had almost forgotten how wonderfully varied the Yorkshire Dales are and how beautiful the landscape is," says Mark.

Non Fiction

A DICTIONARY OF DESIGN ed by Jonathan Woodham (Oxford University Press, £25)

DESIGNER this and designer that have become all the rage along the high street, while nobody would be seen dead buying uncool products. But how can we have succumbed to the designs on our pockets, who came up with the designs in the first place and who masterminded their commercial development? Design academic Jonathan Woodham's ABC guide gives you the lowdown on design, covering famous designers themselves, technology, key concepts and the way in which mass market design for products as diverse as Starbucks coffee and Barbie has been developed. It's certainly a designer's world out there.

HEALING JUICES by Helen J Simpson (Foulsham, £7.99)

JUICE up your life by knocking back fresh fruit and veggie juices is the message of nutritional expert Helen J Simpson. Kick alcohol and caffeine into touch and let natural drinks give you more energy, help you lose weight and even improve your sex life. And even if you can't give up the booze, a drop of juice can cure a hangover.

LIVING WITH GERMS by John Playfair (Oxford University Press, £12,99)

WHILE the country is constantly being alarmed by stories of the number of deaths caused by the superbug MRSA, a book on germs might not seem the most pleasant of reading. But John Playfair has written a lively and highly informative, yet far from doom-laden account of the world of germs. While pathogens such as bacteria and protozoa do take a grim toll, it is reassuring to learn that the vast majority of microbes do not affect us at all.

Published: 11/01/2005