The Costa Book Awards have been dissolved after 50 years, as organisers refuse to seek another sponsor.

       Established in 1971 as the Whitbread Book Awards, the prize, celebrating literary works popular with the reading public, has been sponsored by cafe chain Costa since 2006.

       The company has announced that it has ended the Costa Book Awards, and that “there are currently no plans for it to be taken over” by another sponsor, effectively dissolving the 50-year-old prize.

       Costa has also said that there are no plans to revive the awards, which have promoted popular fiction, poetry, and biography, and steered the literary market in the UK.

       Jill McDonald, the chief executive of Costa Coffee, said: “After 50 years of celebrating some of the most enjoyable books written by hugely talented authors from across the UK and Ireland, Costa Coffee has taken the difficult decision to end the Costa Book Awards.

       “This means that the 2021 Costa Book Awards held in February 2022 was our 50th and final awards.”

       She added: “We are incredibly proud to have played a part in supporting some of the best-selling authors of the last 50 years, as well as trailblazing diverse and fresh voices, tackling a broad range of themes and ideas, across fiction, poetry and biography.

       “We are honoured to have helped both these new and established talents reach a wider audience of readers.”

       The decision means that the final winner of the Costa Book of the Year was Hannah Lowe in Feb 2022, for her poetry collection The Kids. Her win came 51 years after Geoffrey Hill won the Best Poetry Book award for Mercian Hymns.

       Gerda Charles’s novel The Destiny Waltz and Michael Meyer’s biography of Henrik Ibsen were also awarded at the inaugural awards in 1971.