Atkins, Ypi and Christofi compete for Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize

The Biographers’ Club has announced the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize for 2021 featuring actress Eileen Atkins, Lea Ypi and Transworld publisher Alex Christofi among others.  

Dostoevsky in Love: An Intimate Life (Bloomsbury Continuum) by Transworld editorial director Christofi (pictured) was praised by the judges as it “reconstructs the memoir [Dostoevsky] might have written, from Siberian prison camp to Europe’s gambling halls and the salons of St Petersburg”. They said Christofi “gives us a new and intimate portrait of a writer able to penetrate the depths of the human soul”. 

Atkins’ Will She Do? Act One of a Life on Stage (Virago) was deemed “gloriously refreshing” as it “whisks one of our greatest actors from a council estate in Tottenham to her breakthrough on Broadway, and a 60-year career on stage and screen”. The judges added: “Her eye for the absurd, honesty and narrative flair makes Atkins’ remarkable story of family, class, youthful ambition and big dreams irresistible.” 

Windswept: Walking in the Footsteps of Remarkable Women by Annabel Abbs (Two Roads) is also nominated. “Windswept takes an exhilarating journey from the author’s car-free childhood tramping the Welsh valleys to the remote journeys of extraordinary women who walked to find minds of their own, and assert their independence – Freida Lawrence, Gwen John, Nan Shepherd, Georgia O’Keefe and Simon de Beauvoir among them,” judges said. 

Ian Collins’ John Craxton: A Life of Gifts (Yale) was also praised for its portrayal of the artist and his hedonistic pursuits. The judges said: “He determined to live and paint in Greece, achieving his aim in the 1940s. Byzantine mosaics, El Greco and Greek culture coloured his work and shaped his life thereafter. Collins captures the charm and many talents of a singular artist and remarkable man.” 

Finally, Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Ypi (Allen Lane) was also selected as a finalist. The author grew up in Albania, the last Stalinist outpost of Europe, “where communism had officially replaced religion” and in 1990 a major shift occurred. The judges commented: “As one generation’s aspirations became another’s disillusion, and as her own family secrets were revealed, Ypi found herself asking what freedom really meant.” 

The panel this year for the Biographers’ Club's award included Susannah Clapp, theatre critic for the Observer and author, writer Horatio Clare and Johnny de Falbe, director of John Sandoe (Books) and author of three novels. The winner will be announced at a prize-giving celebration on 8th March at Maggs Bros in Bedford Square, central London.