The Baillie Gifford Prize 25th Anniversary

 

2023 is set to be a monumental year for The Baillie Gifford Prize as it celebrates its 25th anniversary! Since 1999, the prize has honored the very best in non-fiction and has been home to many unforgettable authors and books.

To celebrate, a special panel of judges has been assembled to read all the previous winning books and decide on a Winner of Winners. The panel consists of the editor of The New Statesman, Jason Cowley, and former judges Shahidha Bari, Sarah Churchwell, and Frances Wilson. The winner will be announced on 27 April at a ceremony at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

The anniversary will also be marked by a special documentary – All The Best Stories Are True – which explores the very best in non-fiction writing over the past 25 years. From nail-biting moments to life-changing stories, the documentary uncovers how the prize started out as the non-fiction rival to the Booker, and what the next 25 years hold for readers and writers in a world now steeped in ‘fake news’. It will be available to watch on the Baillie Gifford Prize YouTube channel this February.

Waterstones will also be celebrating the 25th anniversary with displays of all 24 previous winners, paying tribute to the Baillie Gifford Prize’s history and influence as the biggest UK-based non-fiction book prize.

The 24 books in contention are:

 

Author/translator  Title (Imprint) Year of win
 

Antony Beevor

 

Stalingrad (Viking, Penguin Random House)

 

1999

 

David Cairns

 

Berlioz: Servitude and Greatness 1832-1869 (Allen Lane, Penguin Random House UK)

 

2000

 

Michael Burleigh

 

The Third Reich: A New History (Macmillan, Pan Macmillan)

 

2001

 

Margaret Macmillan

 

Peacemakers: Six Months That Changed The World (John Murray Press, Hachette)

 

2002

 

T.J. Binyon

 

Pushkin: A Biography (HarperCollins)

 

2003

 

Anna Funder

 

Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall (Granta)

 

2004

 

Jonathan Coe

 

Like a Fiery Elephant: The Story of B.S. Johnson (Picador, Pan Macmillan)

 

2005

 

James Shapiro

 

1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (Faber & Faber)

 

2006

 

Rajiv Chandrasekaran

 

Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone (Bloomsbury)

 

2007

 

Kate Summerscale

 

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Or, The Murder at Road Hill House (Bloomsbury)

 

2008

 

Philip Hoare

 

Leviathan, or the Whale (4th Estate, HarperCollins)

 

2009

 

Barbara Demick

 

Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea (Granta)

 

2010

 

Frank Dikötter

 

Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962 (Bloomsbury)

 

2011

 

Wade Davis

 

Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest (The Bodley Head, Vintage, Penguin Random House UK)

 

2012

 

Lucy Hughes-Hallett

 

The Pike: Gabriele d’Annunzio, Poet, Seducer and Preacher of War (4th Estate, HarperCollins)

 

2013

 

Helen Macdonald

 

H is for Hawk (Jonathan Cape, Penguin Random House)

 

2014

 

Steve Silberman

 

NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently (Allen and Unwin)

 

2015

 

Philippe Sands

 

East West Street: on the origins of genocide and crimes against humanity (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, The Orion Publishing Group)

 

2016

 

David France

 

How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS (Picador, Pan Macmillan)

 

2017

 

Serhii Plokhy

 

Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy (Allen Lane, Penguin Random House UK)

 

2018

 

Hallie Rubenhold

 

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper (Doubleday, Penguin Random House UK)

 

2019

 

Craig Brown

 

One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time (4th Estate, HarperCollins)

 

2020

 

Patrick Radden Keefe

 

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (Doubleday, Penguin Random House UK)

 

2021

 

Katherine Rundell

 

Super Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne (Faber & Faber)

 

2022

 

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