1998 Whitbread Awards

Book of the Year

• Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters

  Children's Book

• David Almond, Skellig

• Robert Swindells, Abomination
• J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• James Riordan, Sweet Clarinet

  First Novel

• Giles Foden, The Last King of Scotland

• Gavin Kramer, Shopping
• Magnus Mills, The Restraint of Beasts
• Luke Sutherland, Jelly Roll

  Novel

• Justin Cartwright, Leading the Cheers

• Ronan Bennett, the catastrophist
• Barbara Trapido, The Travelling Hornplayer

  Biography

• Amanda Foreman, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

• John Bayley, Iris, A memoir of Iris Murdoch
• Ian Kershaw, Hitler, Volume One Hubris 1889–1936

  Poetry

• Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters

• Philip Gross, The Wasting Game
• Paul Farley, The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See you