Nero Book Awards – Books For Keeps

Sharna Jackson heads Children’s Books Category Judges for the Nero Book Awards 2025

October 1, 2025/in news /by Andrea Reece

The 2025 Nero Book Awards are underway with the judges for the different categories announced. The judges for the Children’s Fiction Award are: author Sharna Jackson, Emily Bearn, Children’s Literary Critic and author, The Telegraph, and Nick Campbell, Children’s Campaign Manager, Waterstones.

Now in its third year, the Nero Book Awards recognise and celebrate outstanding authors and exceptional writing across the UK and Ireland in four categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Debut Fiction, and Children’s Fiction.

The 2025 judges will look for books that demonstrate outstanding writing and literary excellence; while also selecting the titles they most want to recommend to others for their quality writing and readability. The judges are searching for books that are expertly crafted, highly enjoyable and likely to stand the test of time.

The judging panels will each select four titles in their category – creating a 16-strong shortlist – before choosing an overall winner. The four category winners will then compete for the Nero Gold Prize, awarded by a final judging panel to the overall book of the year. The Nero Gold Prize winner will receive £30,000, whilst category winners receive £5,000 each. Eligible books must have been published in the UK or Ireland between 1st December 2024 and 30th November 2025.

The books on the 2024 children’s shortlist were Bird Boy by Catherine Bruton (Nosy Crow); How to Survive a Horror Movie by Scarlett Dunmore (Little Tiger); The Twelve by Liz Hyder, illustrated by Tom De Freston (Pushkin Children’s Books); and Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody by Patrick Ness, illustrated by Tim Miller (Walker Books). The award was won by Liz Hyder.

Gerry Ford, Founder and CEO, Caffè Nero, said, ‘The Nero Book Awards have grown from strength to strength, and I’m proud that they are recognised amongst the most prestigious literary prizes in the UK and Ireland. Our judges truly represent some of the most influential people in the industry in terms of talent and taste-making. I’m eager to discover which books they select as the reads of the year from the UK and Ireland for their shortlists.’

The 2025 Nero Gold Prize will be awarded on 4^th March 2026, at an evening ceremony at the Outernet in central London.

Shortlists announced for the Nero Book Awards

December 3, 2024/in news /by Andrea Reece

The Nero Book Awards today announce its category shortlists for 2024, recognising the best books from the last 12 months. This is the second year of the awards, which consider Children’s Fiction alongside fiction and non-fiction for adults.

The Children’s Fiction Award Shortlist is:

Bird Boy by Catherine Bruton (Nosy Crow)
Read our interview with Catherine Bruton

How to Survive a Horror Movie by Scarlett Dunmore (Little Tiger)
Read our interview with Scarlett Dunmore

The Twelve by Liz Hyder, illustrated by Tom De Freston (Pushkin Children’s Books)
Read our interview with Liz Hyder

Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody by Patrick Ness, illustrated by Tim Miller (Walker Books)
Read our interview with Patrick Ness

Gerry Ford, Founder and CEO of Caffè Nero, commented, ‘Our goal is to inspire writers to write, readers to read and everyone to live a richer life through ideas and storytelling.’

This year’s judges for the Children’s Fiction Award are Patrice Lawrence, Leanne Fridd, Owner, Bookbugs and Dragontales bookshop and Sarah Webb, Children’s festival programmer and reviewer.

Launched in 2023, and run as not-for-profit, the Nero Book Awards’ mission is to help readers of all ages and interests to recognise great writers and to discover outstanding books from the past year through recommendation.

The category winners will be announced on Tuesday 14^th January 2025 and of those, one book will be selected as the overall winner – The Nero Gold Prize, Book of the Year – by a final panel of judges and announced at a ceremony on 5^th March 2025.

To be eligible for the 2024 Nero Book Awards, books must have been first published in English in the UK or Ireland between the 1^st of December 2023 and 30^th of November 2024. At the time of entry, authors must have been alive and resident in the UK or Ireland for the past three years. Each of the category winners receives £5,000, with the overall Nero Gold Prize – Book of the Year winner receiving an additional £30,000.

Find the full shortlists on the website.

Nero Book Awards Category Winners Announced

January 30, 2024/in news /by Andrea Reece

Caffè Nero has announced the category winners for the inaugural Nero Book Awards, which celebrate outstanding books and writers from the UK and Ireland across four categories: Children’s Fiction, Debut Fiction, Fiction and Non-Fiction.

Beth Lincoln has been named the winner of the £5,000 Children’s Fiction category for The Swifts, illustrated by Claire Powell. A rip-roaring murder mystery full of comedy and high jinks, the book is Lincoln’s first, and a direct result of her participation in Penguin Random House’s WriteNow scheme, which nurtures and publishes new writers from underrepresented communities.

As she reveals in the interview she gave Books for Keeps, Beth Lincoln feels passionately about integrating queer representation, with several characters in The Swifts identifying as queer. The Swifts was also inspired by her love for ‘weird old words’ like bumbershoot and zounderkite, a theme reflected in the book as the central family name their children according to a random page in their sacred dictionary.

The Swifts will now be judged against the winners of the Debut Fiction, Fiction and Non-Fiction categories, with the overall winner and recipient of The Nero Gold Prize, Book of the Year, to be announced at a ceremony in London on Thursday 14th March.

The judges in the children’s category were Urmi Merchant, co-founder and director of the children’s specialist bookshop and events space Pickled Pepper Books, in north London; Dave Rudden, author of the award-winning Knights of the Borrowed Dark series; and award-winning journalist, TV presenter and author, Nick Sheridan.

A final judging panel led by award-winning author Bernardine Evaristo will select the overall winner, who receives an additional £30,000.

Bernardine Evaristo said, ‘At a time when literature is under threat from the addictive distractions of social media and the internet, literary prizes not only celebrate individual writers and elevate careers, but draw attention to a beautiful art form that requires and rewards sustained concentration and engagement with words, other people’s lives, and the imagination. The Nero Book Awards are a major new prize. I’m looking forward to chairing the Nero Gold Prize, and selecting a book from the category winners that offers readers exceptional riches, one which we judges think deserves to be honoured as the overall book of the year.’

The Nero Book Awards celebrate the craft of great writing and the joy of reading, providing readers of all tastes with a combination of high-quality writing and readability. They are part of Caffè Nero’s programme to sponsor the arts and are run in partnership with Right to Dream, Brunel University London and The Booksellers Association.

The other three books shortlisted in the Children’s Category are:

Gwen and Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher (Bloomsbury YA)

Bitterthorn by Kat Dunn (Andersen Press)

Wild Song by Candy Gourlay (David Fickling)