Andrew Miller novel Pure wins Costa Book of the Year 2012 There may be a little frivolity, some nice shoes or something, but basically you live off it. He said he was not sure if his next novel would have a historical setting and he would follow the "curious path of my own obsessions." He said: "Writing is a kind of organised dreaming. So we do, we sit in a room and dream up strange places and strange people and set them running. Pure is the story of a young engineer sent to Paris on the orders of the king to demolish an ancient cemetery that is overflowing with the dead. Mr Miller said he even toyed with the idea of not writing any more novels after finishing this one, but said: "I don't really know if I could stop. It is in very deep and has been most of my life, reading and writing, I can't really imagine a life that doesn't involve both activities at the very centre. London Evening Standard editor Geordie Greig, who chaired the judging panel, praised the book's "vivid rendition" of the era, but admitted the panel had been split with "quite bitter dissent" with some judges backing Mr Hollis. He said the novel was "a morality tale that engrosses with its vivid rendition of pre-revolutionary France." The judges, who included novelist Patrick Gale and actor Hugh Dennis, spent 90 minutes before coming to a decision. Mr Greig said there had been "passionately held views over two books," adding: "It really was a fierce debate and there was quite bitter dissent and argument to find the winner." He described Mr Hollis' Now All Roads Lead To France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas as "an incredibly subtle brilliant biography." The other books in the running were Christie Watson's debut novel Tiny Sunbirds Far Away, Carol Ann Duffy's collection of verse, The Bees, and Blood Red Road by children's author Moira Young. Mr Greig said judging books in such different genres was like comparing bananas with chicken curry. Mr Miller, who has written five other novels and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2001, was announced as the winner at an awards ceremony in central London tonight. Jonathan Ruppin, web editor for Foyles bookshops and a judge for the 2010 Costa Novel Award, said the win could give Bristol-born Mr Miller the "commercial success his stylish and absorbing novels have long deserved." He said: "Pure perfectly captures the mood of a downtrodden and angry nation, on the verge of overthrowing a self-serving and out-of-touch ruling class - it's very much a book for our time."