A dark novel by a Scottish writer who recently embarked on a second career as a stand-up comedian was singled out for one of Britain’s most prestigious literary prizes last night.

A.L. Kennedy, 42, follows the Nobel-winning poet Seamus Heaney and the bestselling novelist Philip Pullman as the winner of the Costa Book of the Year award.

She was chosen for her fifth novel, Day, a harrowing story of a Second World War bomber crew, which the judges hailed as a masterpiece. It has been lauded as a superbly crafted work about the brutal simplicities of war and the camaraderie among the crew as they face death. The chairman of the judging panel, the author Joanna Trollope, said that the novel was perfect and beautifully written.

She said: “She is an extraordinary stylist. Her style is arresting. It has got shades of James Joyce and all kinds of greats in it.”

Day by A. L. Kennedy

Kennedy shows characteristic boldness in this story of a former RAF prisoner-of-war returning to Germany to play the part of a British POW in a film

Background

• Tale of war and redemption

• Bookies pick Kennedy as Costa favourite

• O'Flynn wins Costa

• Do your homework

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• Day by A. L. Kennedy

The panel’s choice was no surprise to the bookmakers. The book was the odds-on favourite at William Hill, followed by Simon Sebag Montefiore’s Young Stalin, Jean Sprackland’s poetry collection Tilt, the debut novelist Catherine O’Flynn’s What Was Lost and The Bower Bird by Ann Kelley.

But the eight judges took 90 minutes to choose the winner, arriving at their decision only minutes before their deadline. Trollope said that it was a close-run contest between Kennedy, O’Flynn and Montefiore.

The Costa Book Award encouraged impossible comparisons between categories, she added. “You cannot compare a slim volume of verse with a hefty biography. This is about the judges concentrating on choosing an example of excellence for its category, something we could recommend and give to a friend.” She applauded Day as a novel about “learning to live with what is left of oneself after trauma . . I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who is profoundly depressed.”

The category winners — novel, biography, poetry, first novel and children’s — were chosen from 553 entries. Each winner received £5,000, and Kennedy was awarded a further £25,000. Picking up her prize, Kennedy made a special plea to have “libraries with books in them and bookshops with a wide range of books”. She added afterwards: “If you genuinely care about books, then defend them. You’ve got to start with the education system.”

Alison Louise Kennedy said that she writes under her initials because the authors she first admired — J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and E.E. Nesbitt — had done so. She lives in Glasgow and is an associate professor with the Warwick University Creative Writing Programme. On her website, she s writes: “Prizes do not make sense. Keep away from them, do not consider them, they are none of your business, if you write, unless you happen to be judging one, in which case, try to arrange for the best book to win. If you win one, keep your head down and try to pretend it was because your book was good.”

A review of Day in The Times said: “Kennedy writes with keen, precise, quirky intelligence and artistry.” The Daily Telegraph wrote that “it ought to win all the prizes going”.

The prize was established in 1971 to recognise the most enjoyable books of the past year.

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