Three W&N titles make Political Book of the Year shortlist

Weidenfeld & Nicolson has three titles on the shortlist for Political Book of the Year in the Paddy Power Political Book Awards 2014.

W&N’s Perilous Question by Lady Antonia Fraser, I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb and Empire of the Deep by Ben Wilson are joined in the category by Damian McBride’s Power Trip (Biteback), Charles Moore’s biography of Margaret Thatcher (Allen Lane) and This Boy by Alan Johnson (Bantam Press). The winner of the Political Book of the Year will receive a cheque for £10,000 donated by Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC. Last year’s winner in this category was The Day Parliament Burned Down by Caroline Shenton (Oxford University Publishing).

Now in their second year, the awards celebrate excellence across all areas of political publishing. Other awards presented on the night include Political Biography of the Year, Political Fiction Book of the Year, Debut Political Book of the Year and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Political Literature. A total of 54 books are shortlisted across all 9 categories.

Several political heavyweights have been shortlisted, such as Tony Benn, Jonathan Aitken and Alastair Campbell, as well as journalists Max Hastings, Simon Heffer and Jeremy Paxman.
 
Iain Dale, founder of the awards, said: “Following a hugely successful inaugural year, this year’s Paddy Power Political Book Awards are better than ever. Once again, the calibre of the shortlisted authors is outstanding, offering an inspiring reminder of the breadth of talent on show in political writing.”
 
The judging panels are made up of political journalists and leading political figures including David Trimble, Sir Ming Campbell, Lord Ashcroft, Andrew Mitchell, Caroline Shenton and Mary Beard.

The Awards will be presented at a ceremony on Wednesday 19th March at the BFI IMAX cinema.
 

The 2014 shortlists in full are:

Polemic of the Year
What Should We Tell Our Daughters? by Melissa Benn (John Murray)
The Necessity of Poverty by John Bird (Quartet)
The Last Vote by Philip Coggan (Allen Lane)
The British Dream by David Goodhart (Atlantic Books)
How We Invented Freedom & Why It Matters by Daniel Hannan (Head of Zeus)
What Has Nature Ever Done For Us? by Tony Juniper (Profile Books)

International Affairs Book of the Year
Chinese Whispers by Ben Chu (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Angela Merkel by Alan Crawford and Tony Czuczka (Wiley)
The World’s Most Dangerous Place by James Fergusson (Bantam)
The War That Ended Peace by Margaret MacMillan (Profile Books)
In The Ring by Don McKinnon (Elliott & Thompson)
North Korea Undercover by John Sweeney (Bantam Press)

Political Fiction Book of The Year
My Name Is… by Alastair Campbell (Hutchinson)
A Ghost at the Door by Michael Dobbs (Simon & Schuster)
The Kill List by Frederick Forsyth (Bantam Press)
The Queen of Four Kingdoms by HRH Princess Michael of Kent (Constable)
One Night in Winter by Simon Sebag Montefiore (Century)
The Wall by William Sutcliffe (Bloomsbury Publishing)

Political Biography of The Year in association with Total Politics
Margaret Thatcher: Power and Personality by Jonathan Aitken (Continuum)
A Blaze of Autumn Sunshine by Tony Benn (Hutchinson)
The Pike by Lucy Hughes-Hallett (Fourth Estate)
Disraeli by Douglas Hurd & Edward Young (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Edmund Burke by Jesse Norman (William Collins)
Strictly Ann by Ann Widdecombe (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

Political Humour and Satire Book of the Year in association with The InterContinental London Westminster
Maggie & Me by Damian Barr (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Sign of the Times by Peter Brookes (The Robson Press)
Britty Britty Bang Bang by Hugh Dennis (Headline)
Private Eye: Annual 2013 by edited by Ian Hislop (Private Eye Productions)
Romps, Tots and Boffins by Robert Hutton (Elliott & Thompson)
The Prime Minister’s Ironing Board by Adam Macqueen (Little, Brown)

Practical Politics Book of the Year
5 Days in May by Andrew Adonis (Biteback Publishing)
In It Together by Matthew D’Ancona (Viking)
Democracy Ltd by Bobby Friedman (Oneworld Publications)
Trading Secrets by Mark Huband (I. B. Tauris)
The Blunders of our Governments by Anthony King & Ivor Crewe (Oneworld Publications)
The Contemporary House of Lords by Meg Russell (Oxford University Press)

Political History Book of the Year in association with News UK
Churchill’s First War by Con Coughlin (Macmillan)
An English Affair by Richard Davenport-Hines (Harper Press)
Catastrophe by Max Hastings (William Collins)
High Minds by Simon Heffer (Cornerstone)
Great Britain’s Great War by Jeremy Paxman (Viking)
When Britain Burned the White House by Peter Snow (John Murray)

Debut Political Book of the Year in association with Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC
The New Middle East by Paul Danahar (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Rising Tides by Liam Fox (Heron Books)
The Default Line by Faisal Islam (Head of Zeus)
People Power by Dan Jellinek (Bantam Press)
Making It Happen by Iain Martin (Simon & Schuster)
Empire of Secrets by Calder Walton (William Collins)

Political Book of the Year in association with Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC
Perilous Question by Lady Antonia Fraser (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
This Boy by Alan Johnson (Bantam Press)
Power Trip by Damian McBride (Biteback Publishing)
Margaret Thatcher: The Authorised Biography by Charles Moore (Allen Lane)
Empire of the Deep by Ben Wilson (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)