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Spear's Book Awards II

The inaugural Spear’s Book Awards, celebrating the very best books of the year – from finance to fiction – took place today, June 30th, 2009, at a glamorous literary lunch held at the Landau restaurant in the five-star Langham, London.

Authors and celebrity judges from the worlds of literature, finance and society were in attendance as prizes were given out for categories which include some of the most influential books of the past twelve months.

The winning books were:

Financial Book of the Year
Gillian Tett, Fool's Gold (Little, Brown)

Financial History Book of the Year
Liaquat Ahamed, Lords of Finance (William Heinemann)

Biography of the Year
Jackie Wullschlager, Chagall: Love and Exile (Allen Lane)

Family History of the Year
Adam Nicolson, Sissinghurst (HarperPress)

Novel of the Year
Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall (Fourth Estate)

Coffee-Table Book of the Year
The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge (Thames & Hudson)

Spear's Special Award
The Highgrove Florilegium (Addison Publications)

Guests included: Vince Cable, MP; Frances Osborne, wife of George Osborne, MP; Liaquat Ahamed, winning author of Lords of Finance; renowned interior designer David Mlinaric; acclaimed illustrator Adam Dant; Jane Wellesley; Anthony Haden-Guest; host William Cash and Dr Vanessa Neumann; Toby Young; and many of the nominated authors and literary London’s leading agents, publishers and editors.

Further photos from the Spear's Book Awards, taken by Dave Bennett.

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Editor's Letter

“...I have spent the last three years renovating a country house in Shropshire and I am finally ready to move in this summer.”

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