Lucy Steeds‘ celebrated escapist novel, The Artist, has been announced as the winner of the Waterstones Book of the Year 2025. The Café at the Edge of the Woods by Mikey Please has also been revealed as Children’s Book of the Year, with Padella by Tim Siadatan announced as Gift of the Year.
Every year Waterstones booksellers are called on to nominate an outstanding book they particularly enjoyed recommending to readers over the year. This year they chose the worthy winners from an exceptional shortlist, reflective of a very strong year for publishing.
The three 2025 champions are an especially delectable bunch, with food playing a key role in each of the titles.
The Artist – Waterstones Book of the Year 2025
Set during the 1920s, The Artist focuses on an enigmatic painter, the young British journalist set on penning a piece about him, and the artist’s seemingly unworldly niece. As the young man sets out to write his piece on the great and terrifying painter, tensions between the three come to a dramatic conclusion. A stunning portrait of time and place, with wonderfully simmering romance.
The Café at the Edge of the Woods – Waterstones Children’s Book of the Year 2025
Beautifully illustrated and told in immersive rhymes, The Café at the Edge of the Woods is a playful and hilarious story about following your dreams, curious food and magical creatures.
Mikey Please is a BAFTA award-winning and OSCAR nominated animation director and writer based in Bristol. The Café at the Edge of the Woods is his debut picture book and won The Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in March 2025.
Padella – Waterstones Gift of the Year 2025
From low and slow spicy pork ragu, to creamy gorgonzola gnocchi and rich tomato cannelloni, Padella is the ultimate pasta-lover’s cookbook.
Tim Siadatan graduated from the first intake at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen, he is the co-owner of London based restaurants Trullo and Padella and has become synonymous with bold Italian cooking. Tim now lives in Frome, Somerset.
The Waterstones Book Of The Year title is a much-coveted award, with the illustrious list of previous winners ranging from Philip Pullman and Maggie O’Farrell to Charlie Mackesy, Paul McCartney and Katherine Rundell. The winners will receive the full and committed backing of Waterstones shops and booksellers across the UK, as well as support online and through its loyalty card programme, Waterstones Plus, which reaches over one million readers.
The Waterstones Book of the Year shortlist in full (alphabetically by author surname):
Ocean by David Attenborough and Colin Butfield, John Murray Press
Universality by Natasha Brown, Faber & Faber
Donut Squad: Take Over the World! By Neill Cameron, David Fickling Books
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, Scholastic
Craftland by James Fox, Vintage Publishing
The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson, Hodder & Stoughton
Alice with a Why by Anna James, HarperCollins
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang, HarperCollins
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell, Vintage Publishing
The Café at the Edge of the Woods by Mikey Please, HarperCollins
The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins, Hay House
Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy, Penguin Books
Padella by Tim Siadatan, Bloomsbury Publishing
The Artist by Lucy Steeds, John Murray Press
Strange Pictures by Uketsu, Pushkin Press
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