Press Release

BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction Longlist Announced14/05/2009

Two Hachette UK Titles have today been longlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction.

Sponsored by the BBC, the prize rewards the best of non-fiction and is open to authors of all non-fiction books in the areas of current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts.

Darwin's Island by Steve Jones (Little, Brown) and The Man Who Invented History by Justin Marozzi (John Murray) were selected as two of the 19 titles on the Longlist, taken from a record 166 entries, , the range widely in interest and continue the prize’s reputation for highlighting diverse and thought-provoking books.

Jacob Weisberg, one of America’s leading political journalists and commentators and chair of the judging panel, commented:

"The list released today is the fruit of a collective reading spree that I think I can say we've all enjoyed tremendously. All those included are distinguished, well-wrought books. Each has passionate advocates on our committee. I know how difficult it is going to be for us to whittle down to the short list over the next month."

The shortlist will be decided in late May and the winner will be announced at a ceremony at King’s Place in London on 30 June and broadcast on BBC Two on a Culture Show special.

The Full Longlist is as follows:

  • Lords of Finance, Liaquat Ahamed (William Heinemann)
  • Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate (Viking)  
  • Pompeii, Mary Beard (Profile Books)
  • A Fork in the Road, Andre Brink (Harvill Secker)
  • The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, Alain De Botton (Hamish Hamilton)
  • Science: A Four Thousand Year History, Patricia Fara (Oxford University Press)
  • Bad Science, Ben Goldacre (Fourth Estate)
  • The Lost City of Z, David Grann (Simon and Schuster)
  • Leviathan, Philip Hoare (Fourth Estate)
  • The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science, Richard Holmes (HarperPress)
  • A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and their Remarkable Families, Michael Holroyd (Chatto & Windus)
  • Darwin's Island, Steve Jones (Little, Brown)
  • Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality, Manjit Kumar (Icon Books)
  • The Man Who Invented History, Justin Marozzi (John Murray)
  • Hester: the Remarkable Life of Dr Johnson’s ‘Dear Mistress’, Ian McIntyre (Constable)
  • A Book of Silence, Sara Maitland (Granta)
  • Sissinghurst: An Unfinished History, Adam Nicolson (HarperPress)
  • The Wisdom of Whores, Elizabeth Pisani (Granta)
  • The House of Wittgenstein, Alexander Waugh (Bloomsbury)