Video: Hilary Mantel 'honoured and proud' to have won Costa Book Award Mantel, already a double Booker prize winner, secured the record when she was awarded the 2012 Costa Book Award on Tuesday night, beating an all-female shortlist of five. Chair Dame Jenni Murray hailed her work as "on stilts above the rest." "I would like to tell you there was blood on the floor," she said of the debate to find the winner. But there was absolute unanimity. She simply stood head and shoulders - more than head and shoulders - above the rest; she stood on stilts. After accepting the prize at the awards ceremony, Mantel said she was "honoured and proud" to have won.