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Shortlisted author Dave Goulson on building a bumblebee hotel
Picture caption: Life in the bee nest is not as harmonious as you might think I’ve spent every spare moment these last few weeks constructing the world’s first bumblebee hotel in my garden. I’m very...
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Charles Moore on Margaret Thatcher: The handbag ruled
At my present rate of a speech about my biography of Margaret Thatcher roughly every other day, I can discern a pattern of questioning. Although Mrs Thatcher was an intensely political person all her...
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Lucy Hughes-Hallett writes a blog in the style of Gabriele d'Annunzio
I don’t much like talking about myself, but Gabriele d’Annunzio loved to do so. Let this be his blog. He enjoyed making lists.People whom he thought he resembled, and why:Julius Caesar (because they...
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Win a set of the shortlisted books and tickets to our Southbank Centre event
With one week to go until the announcement of the 2013 winner, we’re giving away a set of the six shortlisted books, plus two tickets to our event at Southbank Centre on Sunday evening. For a chance to...
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William Dalrymple on book tours in Pakistan and Afghanistan
For any author bored of London book launches with the plastic cups of Chardonnay, I highly recommend taking a book tour of Pakistan and Afghanistan.Firstly, author events are somewhat rarer in those...
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Biography of “repellent” Italian poet and politician awarded 2013 Samuel...
Book which “transcends the conventions of biography” wins UK’s leading non-fiction prize in its 15th anniversary year Winner Lucy Hughes-Hallett tells the story of a celebrated poet and Italian...
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Winner of the 2013 Samuel Johnson Prize - Lucy Hughes-Hallett
Description: Lucy Hughes-Hallett, winner of the 2013 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, with her winning book The Pike, published by 4th Estate Prize year: 2013
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Extract from Caroline Moorehead’s 'Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in...
This is an extract from Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France by Caroline Moorehead published by Chatto & Windus. CHAPTER ONE Mea Culpa When Aaron Liwerant brought Sara, his...
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John Campbell on his tools for writing the biography of Roy Jenkins
The best thing about writing my biography of Roy Jenkins was that I had his private papers. This was a privilege I did not enjoy with my previous contemporary biographies, of Edward Heath and Margaret...
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Extract from Alison Light's 'Common People' published by Fig Tree
This is an extract from Common Peple by Alison Light published by Fig Tree. PrefaceI began this book because I realized I had no idea where my family came from. Of course I knew things about my...
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Extract from Greg Grandin's 'Empire of Necessity' published by Oneworld
This is an extract from Empire of Necessity by Greg Grandin published by Oneworld. (This version does not include footnotes) INTRODUCTION Wednesday, February 20, 1805,shortly after sunrise, in the...
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Greg Grandin on starting his research for 'Empire of Necessity'
I remember the moment I learned that Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno was largely based on an actual event. I had assigned the novella in a seminar I was teaching, a fictional illustration of Yankee and...
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Extract from John Campbell's 'Roy Jenkins' published by Jonathan Cape
This is an extract from Roy Jenkins by John Campbell published by Jonathan Cape. 1 His Father’s SonDuring his lifetime a typically British controversy surrounded Roy Jenkins’ origins. To his critics in...
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Extract from Helen Macdonald's 'H is for Hawk' published by Jonathan Cape
This is an extract from H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald published by Jonathan Cape. H is for Hawk 1 PatienceForty-five minutes north-east of Cambridge is a landscape I’ve come to love very much...
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H is For Hawk by Helen Macdonald wins 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction
Helen Macdonald has tonight, Tuesday 4 November, been announced the winner of the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, for her book H is For Hawk, published by Jonathan Cape. H is For Hawk tells...
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Double prize win for Helen Macdonald
First the Samuel Johnson Prize and now the Costa - congratulations to Samuel Johnson Prize 2014 winner Helen Macdonald who last night, Tuesday 27 January, won Costa Book of the Year for H is for Hawk!
View ArticleThe Samuel Johnson Prize goes from strength to strength
Toby Mundy appointed the first Director of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction Blavatnik Family Foundation to sponsor 2015 winner announcement and dinner Caroline Daniel, editor of FT Weekend, to...
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Anne Applebaum to chair judges of The 2015 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction
Chinese history and politics, climate change, and film and TV are among the specialisms of this year’s judges for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, the UK’s leading non-fiction prize. Leading...
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Directors of Samuel Johnson Prize announce search for sponsor
The directors and Steering Committee of the Samuel Johnson Prize, the UK’s leading non-fiction prize, today (Wednesday 27 May) announce the search for a sponsor to take the prize forward with them from...
View ArticleAntony Beevor - 'Why the writing of History had to change'
Antony Beevor, winner of the inaugural Samuel Johnson Prize in 1999, shares his thoughts on a watershed moment for historical writing:In the early summer of 1995, I was in Moscow researching Stalingrad...
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