Women dominate ‘enthralling’ Baillie Gifford Prize shortlist

The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction has unveiled its first-ever majority female-authored shortlist, with five women and one man up for the prestigious £50,000 prize. 

This year’s shortlist for the prize was announced on 10th October, with all six of the nominees in the running for the first time.

Carole Elkins’ The Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire (The Bodley Head) was described by the judges as “one of those books that feels inarguable". “An astonishing panorama of the British Empire in the 20th-century, it is fascinating and mind-changing,” they said of the book. “It tells us so much about the way our institutions once worked, about the individuals who operated with impunity within them – and, of course, about the world as it is today.”

Jonathan Freedland’s The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World (John Murray Press) is also on the shortlist. Judges said Freedland “brings his skill as a thriller writer (under the pseudonym Sam Bourne) and his expertise as a journalist together” in The Escape Artist, adding: “This is a sublime page turning exposition of an extraordinary story, and an urgent reminder about the power of information.”

Sally Hayden’s My Fourth Time We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route (4th Estate) is also nominated. The judges said: “From its arresting title to the urgency of the author’s note with which it concludes, My Fourth Time, We Drowned is an exceptional, extraordinarily powerful work of reportage.”

Also shortlisted is Anna Keay for The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown (William Collins), described by the judges as full of “wonderful characters and great writing”.

Polly Morland is up for A Fortunate Woman: A Country Doctor’s Story (Picador). The judges called it a “a work of breathtaking intimacy” and said that reading Morland “as she thinks on the page is a real privilege”.

Katherine Rundell rounds off the list with Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne (Faber & Faber). Judges said it succeeds in its two fundamental missions: “It brings the poet to life for the fan of his works, and it makes the person who has yet to discover them want to. Donne’s curiosity about what lies beyond infinity, and his invention of a language to carry him there, makes him a bewitching subject and Rundell captures him brilliantly.”

The 2022 judging panel, chaired by writer and associate editor of The Bookseller Caroline Sanderson, also features writer and science journalist Laura Spinney, critic and writer for the Observer Rachel Cooke, BBC journalist and presenter Clive Myrie, author and New Yorker writer Samanth Subramanian, and critic and broadcaster Georgina Godwin.

Sanderson said: “The six books on the first-ever majority female-authored Baillie Gifford shortlist are marvellously wide-ranging, in terms of setting, era, and the creative approaches on display. But however different the canvas, all have enthralling human stories at their heart.”

The winner of the £50,000 prize will be announced on 17th November at the Science Museum, with each runner up receiving £1,000. The prize aims to recognise and reward the best of non-fiction and is open to authors of any nationality.

Last year’s winner was Patrick Radden Keefe for Empire of Pain (Picador), which became a Sunday Times bestseller.