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"It's powerfully written," she said. "We were knocked out by the ease with which he could control the pace of his three-line verse and the richness of the things he remembers about Nigeria. He's writing about political violence of post-colonial Nigeria, but we never felt it was politically-correct."

Letter to Patience is a vividly atmospheric book-length poem divided into cantos. The letter writer is in Britain, where he has returned with his Nigerian wife and children. The poem is an epic portrayal of a beautiful and troubled country and of one man's search for meaning in difficult times.

The judges described it as their "unanimous choice and a clear winner".

Commenting on his win, the poet said: "When I was shortlisted, I was thrilled. I hadn't read the poem since the publisher had accepted it. I started to glance through it and thought, 'this isn't bad. It has a chance, despite the huge prestige of the other people'."

The Costa Book Awards recognise the most enjoyable books of the last year by writers based in the UK and Ireland. Costa announced its takeover of the sponsorship in 2006.

Mr Boyd, 54, won the First Novel Award in 1981 for A Good Man in Africa. Now he has returned 25 years later to claim the Novel Award for Restless.

The judges said: "Its scenes of wartime tension, the smell of espionage and the consequences of deceitful lives. Double cross, double bluff - all written with effortless clarity resulting in an unputdownable read."

Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves is a murder mystery set in the snowy peaks of Canada, a country she has never visited as she is an agoraphobic.

The judges said: "We felt enveloped by the snowy landscape and gripped by the beautiful writing and effortless story-telling. It is a story of love, suspense and beauty."

The judges described Thompson's Keeping Mum as "the perfect antidote to the 'misery memoir'" and Newbery's Set in Stone as "beautifully crafted".

The five Costa Book Award winners each receive £5,000. They were selected from 580 entries, the highest total ever received in one year.

Since the introduction of the Book of the Year award in 1985, it has been won seven times by a novel, three times by a first novel, five times by a biography, five times by a collection of poetry and once by a children's book.

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