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The UK’s most prestigious non fiction prize has been renamed the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction.  Formerly The BBC FOUR Samuel Johnson Prize, the change in name reflects the BBC’s commitment to broadcasting coverage of the Prize on BBC TWO’s The Culture Show. The prize is worth £20,000 to the winning author.

The panel for the 2009 Prize is chaired by Jacob Weisberg, one of America’s leading political journalists and commentators.

He is joined by Dr Mark Lythgoe, neuroscientist and Director of the Cheltenham Science Festival; Tim Marlow, writer, broadcaster and art historian and director of exhibitions at White Cube; Munira Mirza, Director of Policy, Arts, Culture and the Creative Industries at the Mayor of London’s office; and Sarah Sands, an experienced journalist and currently editor-in-chief of Reader’s Digest magazine.