The Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction has revealed the 15 books on its longlist.
Now in its 16th year, the prize is open to non-fiction books on the topics of current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. Last year’s winner was The Pike by Lucy Hughes-Hallett, a biography of controversial Italian writer Gabriele D’Annunzio.
This year’s longlist features six memoirs, as noted by chair of judges Claire Tomalin:
“We have two medical works, a touch of wildlife, some deplorable current affairs and one dazzling piece of extended literary criticism. History brings five titles: ranging from Jewish children in World War Two France to slave rebellion during the Napoleonic wars – plus an exploration of an English family tree the like of which has never been made before.
“We had a lot of arguments, but our disagreements were friendly as well as fierce, and we are still on speaking terms. And yes, the books on the longlist show that non-fiction is certainly stranger and wilder than fiction.”
Fellow judges on the panel include Alan Johnson MP, Financial Times Books Editor Lorien Kite, philosopher Ray Monk and historial Ruth Scurr.
The prize covers books released between January 1 and December 31 2014. The shortlist will be announced on October 9, with the winner to be announced on November 4.
The longlist:
- Roy Jenkins (Jonathan Cape) by John Campbell
- The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life (Faber) by John Carey
- God's Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England (Bodley Head) by Jessie Childs
- The Iceberg: A Memoir (Atlantic) by Marion Coutts
- Hack Attack (Random House) by Nick Davies
- Being Mortal (Profile Books) by Atul Gawande
- The Empire of Necessity (Oneworld) by Greg Grandin
- Common People (Fig Tree) by Alison Light
- H is for Hawk (Jonathan Cape) by Helen Macdonald
- Do No Harm (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) by Henry Marsh
- An Encyclopaedia of Myself (4th Estate) by Jonathan Meades
- Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France (Chatto & Windus) by Caroline Moorehead
- The Mighty Dead: Why Homer Matters (William Collins) by Adam Nicolson
- In These Times (Faber) by Jenny Uglow (Published on November 6)
- Romany and Tom: A Memoir (Bloomsbury) by Ben Watt
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