Andrew Miller has won the 2011 Costa Book of the Year

Novelist Andrew Miller has won the 2011 Costa Book of the Year, his first major literary award, for his sixth novel, Pure. Set in pre-revolutionary Paris in 1785, Pure is the story of Jean-Baptiste Baratte, an ambitious young engineer, who is assigned the task of emptying the noxious, overflowing Parisian cemetery Les Innocents, and of demolishing its church. The announcement was made Tuesday 24 January at an awards ceremony held at Quaglino's in central London