The rivals

Michael Frayn and Claire Tomalin joined us live

The nominations for this year's Whitbread Book of the Year Awards could have caused ripples in the domestic bliss of one literary household.

For the first time in the history of the award, a married couple have found themselves on the same shortlist.

Claire Tomalin and Michael Frayn have won their respective categories and are now competing with each other for the respected Whitbread Book of the Year Award.

So, is it pistols at dawn across the Breakfast table?

Michael Frayn and Claire Tomalin came in to the Breakfast studio this morning to explain how they're coping with the suspense of the competition.

"Our publishers are more embattled than we are," explained Claire Tomalin, who's up for the award for her biography of the 17th century diarist Samuel Pepys.

The two writers are bemused at a turn of events which has put their two very different forms of writing into a head-to-head contest.

Michael Frayn is a novelist, playwright and journalist, while Claire Tomalin is a biographer.

"It's as though you took the over all winner of the Whitbread contest and ran him against the winner of the Derby," explained Michael Frayn.

The two authors admit they give each other progress reports on their work - but they never let each other read the manuscript until it's complete.

"Claire works at home and I have a flat round the corner where I write," says Michael Frayn.

"What mostly goes on," explained Claire, "is a lot of moaning and groaning.

One of us says - this is a disaster and I am never going to write another book. The other one is very mocking and unsympathetic and says of course you will..Then a few months later it's the other way round."

click here to watch Breakfast's interview in full

Further details from BBC News Online

Frayn and Tomalin, both 69, won the Whitbread novel and biography prizes respectively, pitting them against three other authors - as well as each other - for the overall prize, which will be announced on 28 January.

Whitbread winners

Novel:
Michael Frayn, Spies

First novel:
Norman Lebrecht, The Song of Names

Poetry:
Paul Farley, The Ice Age

Biography:
Claire Tomalin, Pepys: The Unequalled Self

Children's Book:
Hilary McKay, Saffy's Angel

Frayn won the novel award with his wartime coming-of-age book Spies, described by judges as "subtle and beautifully rendered".

It follows two boys who grow up in a suburban cul-de-sac, one of whom discovers his mother is a German spy.

Frayn is also known as a playwright, acclaimed for works including Noises Off and Copenhagen.

'Compassionate'

Meanwhile, Tomalin took the biography award for Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self, which was lauded by judges as a "superb, humane and compassionate portrait".

Tomalin, who said writing about the 17th Century diarist drove her "completely mad" at times, said she was delighted to win her category, despite the fact that she must now go head-to-head with her husband, who she lives with in London.

"It was a complete surprise, because the other biographies on the shortlist are all so good," she said.

"I'm still reeling - very pleased, naturally - but now the competition is even fiercer, so I try to stay calm."

Paul Farley won the best poetry award for his collection The Ice Age.

Brought up on a sprawling council estate in Liverpool, he spent 13 years as an artist in London before he could "stand the smell of turpentine no longer" and took up poetry instead.

Journalist Norman Lebrecht scooped the best first novel award for The Song of Names, a tale of two boys growing up in wartime London.

Record entries

Lebrecht is better known as a journalist

The assistant editor of the London Evening Standard is better known for his arts writing and his work on TV and radio.

Finally, Hilary McKay won the children's book award for for Saffy's Angel, about an adopted girl who has a stone angel bequested to her by her grandfather.

As well as being entered for the main Whitbread prize, each of the five winners gets £5,000.

The awards, which were launched in 1971, drew a record 447 entries this year, with the highest number of entries ever in the biography section.

Private Eye editor Ian Hislop leads the judging panel for the main prize, which includes authors Joanna Trollope, poet Wendy Cope and Sunday Times fiction editor Peter Kemp.

Last year's Whitbread Book of the Year was awarded to Philip Pullman for The Amber Spyglass, the first time that a children's book had been the overall winner.

Michael Frayn's novel Spies is published by Faber and Faber at £14.99. ISBN 0 571 21286-7.

Claire Tomalin's biography, Samuel Pepys, The Unequalled Self, is published by Penguin/Viking at £20. ISBN 0 670 88568-1