Harry Davies and Olive Heffernan win 2019 RSL Giles St Aubyn Awards

Harry Davies and Olive Heffernan have triumphed at the RSL Giles St Aubyn Awards.

The £10,000 prize for first commissioned works of non-fiction went to London-based writer and journalist Harry Davies for Operation Information (The Bodley Head, 2021) which offers “a modern history of covert British propaganda, revealing Britain’s long but little-known tradition of waging information warfare from the Second World War to the present day,” organisers said. day. Using recently declassified and previously untapped archives, the book investigates how the British government, often in league with the US, has used secret propaganda to interfere in political affairs.

Judge Kenan Malik, said it “takes a subject at the heart of much contemporary debate – fake news and disinformation – but delves into an area about which there has been little public discussion."

Meanwhile freelance journalist and former marine biologist Olive Heffernan won £5,000 for The High Seas: The Race to Save the Earth’s Last Wilderness (Profile Books, 2021) which explores how two-thirds of our ocean that lie beyond national waters, which have, for most of history, been out of sight. A manifesto calling for more protection of the high seas to prevent “facing a mass extinction of marine life in just over a decade,” prize organisers said. Judge Rachel Hewitt, the book “sounds a rallying cry towards better protection of the High Seas through improvements in law, surveillance, and public awareness”.

Special commendation of the judges  - the panel of which also included Fiona St Aubyn -  went to Rebecca Fogg for her work in progress Beautiful Trauma (Granta, 2022) which describes how she saved her own life following the partial amputation of her hand and navigated through the resulting emotional trauma by studying her injury and its treatment. It offers “a powerful and moving testament to resilience and fortitude,” St Aubyn said. New York-born Fogg researches, writes and consults on innovation in healthcare delivery.

The awards were presented on Thursday 28th November at an event held in central London. They were established in 2017 for first-time writers of non-fiction – in perpetuity – thanks to a significant bequest from author and RSL Fellow Giles St Aubyn. These Awards build on the RSL’s experience of a previous set of non-fiction awards, generously supported by Jerwood Charitable Foundation from 2004 to 2016.