Actor Hugh Grant is to become a judge for the 2004 Whitbread Book Awards, it has been announced.
Grant will join the final judging panel to select the winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year.
He joins panel chairman and journalist Trevor McDonald, broadcaster Mariella Frostrup, MP Michael Portillo and writer Roy Hattersley.
The other five category judging panels are: Novel, Children's Book, Poetry, First Novel and Biography.
The final judging panel will meet on Tuesday 25 January to select the winner, which will be announced at a ceremony that evening.
Mark Haddon's 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' won last year's overall prize.
