• Coverage of the UK's leading non-fiction prize to be broadcast on BBC TWO and the prize to be renamed the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize
• Jacob Weisberg, American political journalist and editor-in-chief of the Slate Group to chair judges
  

The UK’s most prestigious non fiction prize has been renamed the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction it was announced today. Formerly The BBC FOUR Samuel Johnson Prize the change in name reflects the BBC’s commitment to broadcasting coverage of the Prize on BBC 2, The Culture Show. The prize is worth £20,000 to the winning author.

This is the 11th year of the Prize which aims to reward the best non-fiction published in the UK, from biography, travel and popular science to the arts and current affairs.

The panel for the 2009 Prize is also announced today. Jacob Weisberg, one of America’s leading political journalists and commentators, will be Chair of the Judges.

He is joined by Dr Mark Lythgoe, neuroscientist and Director of the Cheltenham Science Festival; Tim Marlow, writer, broadcaster and art historian; 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.

Weisberg comments; “I'm honoured and excited to chair the judging panel for this year's BBC Samuel Johnson Prize. Looking down the submissions list, one gets a sense of the extraordinary breadth and interest of British non-fiction literature today. I am expecting the reading to be heavy, the deliberations to be spirited, and the competition to be stiff.”

The Prize is open to authors of all non-fiction books published in the UK, regardless of nationality. The longlist, which features approximately twenty titles, will be announced in late April. The shortlist of up to six titles will be announced in mid May.

The worldwide reputation of the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize is such that the winning author may expect a huge increase in sales and recognition. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale has enjoyed continuing success in the bestseller lists since winning in 2008 for both the hardback and paperback editions.

The judges will announce the winner of the Prize at an awards event at King’s Place, London on 30th June. The winner receives £20,000, and each of the five shortlisted authors, £1,000.

Former Winners
1999 Stalingrad by Antony Beevor (Penguin)
2000 Berlioz: Servitude and Greatness by David Cairns (The Penguin Press)
2001 The Third Reich: A New History by Michael Burleigh (Macmillan)
2002 Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 by Margaret Macmillan (John Murray)
2003 Pushkin: A biography by T.J. Binyon (HarperCollins)
2004 Stasiland by Anna Funder (Granta)
2005 Like a Fiery Elephant by Jonathan Coe (Picador)
2006 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro (Faber & Faber) 2007 Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (Bloomsbury)
2008 The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury)

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Notes to Editors

• Photographs of the judges and the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction logo are available from Colman Getty
• The judges may be available for interview and can be contacted through Colman Getty
• The longlist of 20 books will be announced in late April; a shortlist of 6 will be announced in mid May
• The winner will be announced at an awards event at King’s Place, N1 on 30th June
• The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction is open to books in the areas of current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. Books published in English by writers of any nationality are eligible for the prize, provided they are published in the UK between 1 May 2008 and 30 April 2009
• The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction is managed by a steering committee and administered by Colman Getty. The steering committee is made up of Stuart Proffitt, Chair, (Publishing Director, Penguin), Antony Beevor (historian and author), Peter Florence (Director of the Guardian Hay Festival), Dotti Irving (Chief Executive, Colman Getty), Adam Kemp (Commissioner, BBC Arts), Mervyn King (Governor, The Bank of England), Toby Mundy, (CEO of Atlantic Books), James Naughtie (broadcaster, BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme), Alan Rusbridger (Editor of The Guardian), Peter Straus (literary agent, Rogers, Coleridge and White) and Martin Taylor (International Adviser for Goldman Sachs)

The Judges

Jacob Weisberg (Chair) is chairman and editor-in-chief of the Slate Group, a unit of the Washington Post Company devoted to developing Web-based publications. Weisberg joined Slate shortly after its founding in 1996 as chief political correspondent. Before joining Slate, Weisberg wrote about politics for magazines including the New Republic, Newsweek, New York Magazine, Vanity Fair and the New York Times Magazine. Jacob is the author of several books, including The Bush Tragedy, which was a New York Times bestseller in 2008, and the Bushisms series. With former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, he co-wrote In an Uncertain World, which was published in 2003. His first book, In Defense of Government, was published in 1996.

Dr Mark Lythgoe is Director of the Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging at University College London, where he develops novel imaging techniques for investigating brain and cardiac function. He is also Director of the Cheltenham Science Festival, one of the world’s largest science festivals. In the last 15 years Mark has combined science and art to engage with the public, explore new boundaries and increase interaction between these fields. He has produced many sci/art projects and collaborated with a wide variety of artist to create works from sculpture to film. Mark has presented several documentary programmes for television and radio including Channel 4 and BBC Radio 4. Mark sits on the Board of directors and trustees for Arts Catalyst, which aims to involve artists, scientists and the wider public in a discourse about science in society. Mark has also been on several judging panels such as the Gulbenkian Prize for Museum of the Year and the Aventis Prize for Science Books.

Tim Marlow is a writer, broadcaster, art historian and Director of Exhibitions at White Cube in London. In 1993 he founded Tate: The Art Magazine. From 1991 to 1998 he presented Radio 4's arts programme Kaleidoscope, for which he won a Sony Award, and for the last five years has been a regular presenter on the BBC World Service. Tim is the author of various books including monographs of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin and the Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele as well as a survey of great artists published by Faber. He has presented over 100 arts documentaries on British Television for FIVE, Sky Arts and the BBC. He has written extensively on art and culture in the British press including the Times, Guardian, Independent on Sunday and Arena, Art Monthly and Blueprint. He is visiting lecturer at Winchester School of Art and an examiner on the Sculpture MA and former Creative Director of Sculpture at Goodwood and is a board member of the ICA.

Munira Mirza is director of arts, culture and the creative industries for the Mayor of London. Munira writes and broadcasts about race, culture and identity, including appearances on BBC 2's Newsnight, BBC Radio 4's Today Programme and in the Guardian and Daily Mail. In 2005 she presented the BBC Radio 4 series, The Business of Race. She is co-author of The Policy Exchange report Living Apart Together: British Muslims and the Paradox of Multiculturalism and has edited a collection of essays for Policy Exchange entitled Culture Vultures: Is UK arts policy damaging the arts? She has been a Council Member on the UK Committee of the European Cultural Foundation and is a founding member of the Manifesto Club.

Sarah Sands is editor-in-chief of Reader’s Digest magazine. Before joining RD in May 2008, Sarah worked at the Evening Standard initially as editor of the Londoner's Diary, before taking further posts as features editor and associate editor. She joined The Daily Telegraph in 1996 as deputy editor, later assuming responsibility for the Saturday edition. She was appointed as the first female editor of The Sunday Telegraph in June 2005. In April 2006 she was appointed consultant editor on the Daily Mail. In February 2009 it was announced that she would be taking up the role of deputy editor on The Evening Standard. Sarah has written two novels, her first was Playing the Game and her second, Hothouse, was published during the summer of 2005.