How much prize money?

The total prize fund is £50,000.  Each of the category winners receives £5,000, and the overall winner receives a further £25,000.

But it’s not just about the prize money.  Sales are enormously increased on the back of being shortlisted for – or winning – a Whitbread Award.  As the winner of the 2002 Whitbread Book of the Year, Claire Tomalin, said: “The effect on the sales of both my book on Pepys and my husband’s novel Spies has been phenomenal.  It is lovely to win a prize – but we and our publishers are all amazed by the surge into the bestseller lists.”