The Nero Book Awards, maintained by Caffè Nero in partnership with The Booksellers Association, Brunel University London and Right To Dream recognize books written by authors based in the UK and Ireland.

This year, the New Awards introduced the Gold Prize for overall best book of the year. The winner of this inaugural prize was Paul Murray for his novel The Bee Sting.

Hilarious and tragic in equal measure, The Bee Sting is a gripping saga of one highly dysfunctional family that asks if a single moment of bad luck – a patch of ice on the road, a bee caught beneath a bridal veil, can change the direction of a life?