Hilary Mantel has been shortlisted for best novel in the annual Costa Book Awards, capping an incredible year for the Glossop-born author who released her Booker winning tome Bring Up The Bodies in May. The winner of the Costa Book Awards - which showcases the finest works of the past 12 months - will receive £30,000 in a ceremony on January 29, 2012.

Others to receive nominations for 2012 include James Meek, Stephen May and Joff Winterhart. Though the prize is predominately won by novelists and poets, this year see's the inclusion of graphic artists like Winterhart, whose Days Of the Bagnold Summer is mentioned in the novel category. He and the other nominees will have it all to do to beat Hilary Mantel, the winner of the 2012 Man Booker Prize for her tale of the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell. It would be a remarkable feat for Mantel, who also won the Booker in 2009 for Wolf Hall, becoming the first woman to scoop the prestigious literary prize on two separate occasions. Three judges per category are in place to choose the winners of the Costa Award: they include the comedian Mark Watson, writers Wendy Holden and Marcus Sedgwick and broadcaster Janet Ellis. 

Last year's Costa Award was won by Andrew Miller for his fictional story Pure, about an engineer working in a Parisian cemetery in the run-up to the French Revolution.