A former Telegraph & Argus journalist is in the running for one of the UK’s biggest literary prizes.

Martyn Bedford, who is now associate senior lecturer in creative writing at Leeds Trinity University College in Horsforth, has been shortlisted for the 2011 Costa Book Award for his sixth novel ‘Flip.’ The Ilkley-based writer is shortlisted for the prestigious prize alongside literary heavyweights Julian Barnes, a Man Booker Prize winner, and poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

The nomination is the latest accolade for the book, which has now been nominated for a total of seven awards, including children’s fiction prize the Carnegie Medal and the Red House Children’s Book Awards.

The 52-year-old, who has lived in Ilkley for 16 years, said: “It has been an amazing few weeks and the Costa shortlisting is the icing on a very nice cake.

“Given that Flip is my first novel for a teenage readership, I was delighted just to get a publishing deal – I never dreamt it would appear on the radar of the judges of even one prize, let alone seven.

“Teenagers really seem to relate to the novel. Not just as a page-turning story but because they’re attuned to its central theme of identity, at a time in our lives when we are caught between childhood and adulthood and are searching for a sense of who we are.”

The novel tells the story of a 14-year-old who wakes up inside another boy’s body.

It was published in March by Walker Books after a bidding auction involving seven UK publishers. It has also been published in the US and Canada, as well as been translated for sale in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, China, Russia and Thailand.

Ilkley Grammar School and Guiseley School have put the book on their English reading lists for pupils.

The Costa judges said: “Flip swept us all along. Thanks to Martyn Bedford’s masterly balance of tension and wit, this unique fusion of the surreal and the everyday proved utterly convincing.”

The winner of each category will be announced on Wednesday, January 4 and will then go on to compete for the overall Costa Book Award prize of £30,000.