Irish author Sebastian Barry will find out this evening if his much-lauded novel The Secret Scripturehas won the Costa Book of the Year award.
The novel, which was also shortlisted for this year’s Booker prize, is one of a five-strong list for the award which is chosen from the winners of the other Costa categories.
Bookies have made Barry favourite to win for the overall award.
The other successful authors who will compete for the £25,000 prize are Sadie Jones, whose bestselling debut novel, The Outcast, scooped the Costa First Novel Award, Diana Athill, who won the Costa Biography Award for her memoir, Somewhere Towards the End, Michelle Magorian, who won the Children's Book Award for Just Henryand Adam Foulds who edged out Irish poet Ciaran Carson to win the Poetry award with The Broken Word.
Earlier this month, Barry's book won the Novel Award category, fighting off strong challenges from Traumaby Patrick McGrath and A Partisan's Daughterby Louis de Bernières.
The judges in the category, which included Irish actress and author Pauline McLynn, described The Secret Scriptureas "a heartbreaking and lyrical tale of loss, betrayal and redemption".
Originally established in 1971 by Whitbread, Costa announced its takeover of the sponsorship of the UK’s popular and prestigious book prize in 2006.
Since the introduction of the Book of the Year award in 1985, it has been won eight times by a novel, four times by a first novel, five times by a biography, five times by a collection of poetry and once by a children’s book.
The 2007 Costa Book of the Year was won by A.L. Kennedy for Day.
The winner of this year's award will be announced at 10.15 pm tonight.