Helen Dunmore's Inside the Wave named Costa Book of the Year

Helen Dunmore died of cancer in June 2017, aged 64. Inside the Wave gathers the poetry she wrote in the final months of her life, a poignant reflection on being close to death.

The poetry collection has received great praise from many sources. "It’s a phenomenal book... an absolute standout book," said Alex Clarke, reviewing the acclaimed writer's last published work on Front Row when the shortlist was first announced.

"It's so relatable to anyone who has experienced loss on any level," says Kiran Millwood Hargrave, one of the Costa Poetry Prize judges, "and it’s incredibly moving, even if you didn’t know it was Dunmore’s final collection."

Helen Dunmore was writing her final novel The Birdcage when she was diagnosed with cancer, but she continued to write, finishing both that book and this now award-winning poetry selection. In March 2017, Radio 4's Open Book programme asked about her refusal to give up her work despite being terminally ill; she replied: "I feel like myself when I'm doing it."

She also considered her own legacy, with a substantial collection of fiction and poetry she had created during her life.

She said: "One of the things that does please me is that my grandchildren will be able to get to know me as adults, through reading my books."

"If you read my fiction or my poetry I haven’t hidden or concealed very much, so I think if you wanted to know who I was, you would find it. I don’t really see the point in writing but hiding who you are; in fact I’m not sure it’s even possible."

Inside the Wave is published by Bloodaxe Books; it includes Helen Dunmore's final poem Hold Out Your Arms, which was written days before she died and added to the second reprint of the book. Listen to Hold Out Your Arms read by Samantha Bond on Front Row shortly after the author's death.

An English country village is thrown into turmoil when a teenage girl goes missing in the local hills - but how long can people really put their regular lives on hold to care about the search?

Jon McGregor's novel isn't as interested with the mystery of the missing teenager as with the effect such an event would have on a community over a long period of time.

"The girl who goes missing is from outside the village and she’s not part of village life, and that was really important," he told Radio 4's Open Book. "It’s as if this 'thing' has been dumped onto the village; I’ve always been really struck by the way that happens with anything where a newsworthy tragedy happens – the name of that place becomes associated with that occurrence."

Reservoir 13 follows the stories of a large number of characters in this Derbyshire village over the space of 13 years as the girl's disappearance shapes their lives. There is no main protagonist - instead, McGregor opted to adopt a 'voice of the community', writing in a style that suggests both gossip and surveillance as the locals grow suspicious and uncertain of each other.

"Everything is framed as 'so-and-so was seen leaving somebody's house' and everything is kind of detached and second-hand," the author explains. "There’s this constant kind of speculation about all the different things that might have happened, and all the different answers there might be."

"The actual story of the missing girl is really straightforward; she disappears, and nobody finds out what happens. But the villagers can never really let go of her, it’s that basic human need to bestow meaning on things that don’t necessarily have any meaning."

Reservoir 13 is published by 4th Estate. The first chapter of the book is available to read here and The Reservoir Tapes podcast by McGregor which forms the prequel to his novel can be downloaded in full here.

When their plane crashes in the Amazon, four children must learn to survive in the dangerous jungle, hundreds of miles from civilisation.

"I wanted to write a book in which the children learn that they are braver than they think they are," tells author Katherine Rundell. "I wanted to write about children discovering that the world is more beautiful and more complicated than they had ever imagined."

Rundell is quite the danger-junkie herself, and has been known to climb buildings, run along rooftops and go tightrope walking. She was inspired to write her latest children's adventure story during her own experience visiting the rainforest.

"Almost every chapter in the novel is based on something I saw in the Amazon", she said in an interview with Book Trust. "I learned how to build a jungle fire, how to gut a piranha (carefully), and how to extract the edible grubs from cocoa pods. I learned just how loud the jungle is at night; a school assembly of insect calls and monkey cries."

Her books, while beloved by many, have also drawn the ire of some protective parents, claiming they're too scary for their young target audience, or that children imitate the dangerous behaviour of her adventurous heroes.

But Katherine has an answer for that. “What books can do that nothing else can is give you someone’s thoughts.

"You get a front row seat to someone’s heart; so I would hope that you would see someone doing something daring but you would see the fear and the doubt that precedes it. And so in that way, books can become places where children can rehearse bravery, rehearse daring.

"And sometimes it goes too far and I’ve had a few parents accuse me of being responsible for their children’s broken ankles... but rarely!”

The Explorer is published by Bloomsbury Children's Books, and BookTrust has an extract available to read for free here.

As Rebecca Stott’s father lay on his deathbed, he begged her to help him write the memoir he'd been struggling with for years - the harrowing story of their family's life in a cult, and how they escaped.

The Exclusive Brethren were a closed community, an ultra-conservative subset of the Christian Evangelical Church, who believed the world was ruled by Satan. In the 1960s they became particularly authoritarian; any contact with the outside world was forbidden, non-Brethren books were banned, women were made to wear headscarves and those who disobeyed the rules were punished.

Rebecca Stott was born into the Brethren around this time, her father and grandfather having been influential Brethren Ministers. However, after a scandal in which the charismatic leader of the Brethren was found in bed with the wife of another member, thousands of former cultists left the group, including Rebecca and her father who was outraged at their leader's betrayal.

Unfortunately, as In The Days of Rain recounts, this was far from the end of their problems; Rebecca's father, having never had contact with the outside world before, struggled to cope with life as a free man.

"The thing about being inside closed groups like that is every decision is made for you," explains Rebecca. "Every part of your life is micro-managed, and when I talk to ex-Brethren who've left, again and again there's this trauma of being released into a world where there’s choice."

Her father used numerology to deal with this trauma; unfortunately his belief that 'the numbers would add up and there would be one big win' led to a gambling addiction, and then embezzlement. He was sent to prison when Rebecca was sixteen.

But there were positive outcomes as well, for when Rebecca and her father emerged into the 'corrupt world' they'd been conditioned to fear outside the Brethren, they discovered it was actually a world rich with the culture of the 1960s.

"Some of the people I’ve interviewed said my father was like Rip Van Winkle, he had never heard The Beatles!" Rebecca says. "His sense of excitement at music and books and poetry and literature and drama was one of the great gifts he brought me."

In The Days of Rain is published by 4th Estate. Listen to Andrew Marr interview Rebecca Stott about her experience on Radio 4's Start the Week programme.

Eleanor Oliphant wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend. Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything.

However, one simple act of kindness shatters the walls Eleanor has built around herself, and she must learn to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted. It scares her, but it's either that or risk being merely 'fine' for the rest of her life.

"I had been thinking about social awkwardness," says Scottish author Gail Honeyman; "people you meet who are not bad people, there is nothing wrong with them, but they are just a little bit awkward and it makes you feel uncomfortable and it makes you want to bring the encounter to an end."

"And I was thinking about loneliness as well. I read an article about life in the late 20s - the usual portrayal in sit-coms and films is that life is one big party, but actually life can be challenging at that age. Once I thought about how someone could find themselves in [Eleanor's] situation, it wasn't hard at all to think of why. I understood how she became the way she is."

Honeyman was working in the post graduate administration department of Glasgow University when she decided to write Eleanor. "It was just before my fortieth birthday. A big birthday like that focusses your mind. It's 'either I give this a go, or I put it in the bin.'" She continued to work at her full-time job, but wouldsqueeze in writing time in the mornings, evenings, or while on holiday.

The book took the publishing world by storm. At the 2015 Frankfurt book festival, it was fought over in a 'fierce' eight-way auction, with Harper Collins finally securing the publishing rights - as well as the rights to a second novel - for a 'high six-figure sum'. Since then the book has been published all around the world, which was especially surprising for Honeyman.

"I thought it was a very specifically Glaswegian story and certainly Scottish story, so when it sold in Korea and Japan... I suppose the city setting does translate to other countries," she mused.

Furthermore, Reese Witherspoon's production company Hello Sunshine have purchased the film rights for the novel. Witherspoon herself is set to play Eleanor Oliphant, although it is yet to be seen whether the story will remain set in Glasgow.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is published by Harper Collins. Read a preview chapter at Simon Mayo's Radio 2 Book Club.

The Costa Book Awards is a prestigious literary prize for authors based in the UK and Ireland, and has been running since 1971 - formerly known as the Whitbread Awards. The prize has five categories: Novel, Children's Book, Biography, Poetry and First Novel, which each win £5,000. One is then selected as the Costa Book of the Year, winning a further £30,000.