www.thesamueljohnsonprize.co.uk

         

The judges for the 2009 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize announced the shortlist today, 22 May. Now in its eleventh year the prize is worth £20,000 to the winner.

 

BBC SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON FICTION SHORTLIST 2009

 

• Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed (William Heinemann)
• Bad Science by Ben Goldacre (Fourth Estate)
• The Lost City of Z by David Grann (Simon and Schuster)
• Leviathan by Phillip Hoare (Fourth Estate)
• The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes (HarperPress)
• Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality by Manjit Kumar (Icon Books)

 

Jacob Weisberg, one of America’s leading political journalists and commentators and chair of the judges, comments:

 

"Only one of this year's judges is a scientist, but all of us were won over by books about scientific discovery and scientific malpractice - not to mention the brilliantly-written narratives about inter-war economic history, Amazonian exploration, and whales. All of the shortlisted titles are the kinds of books we ordinarily might not have picked up - and now feel lucky to have read."

 

The judges will announce the winner of the prize at an awards ceremony at King’s Place, London on 30 June. Formerly The BBC FOUR Samuel Johnson Prize, the change in name reflects the BBC’s commitment to broadcasting coverage of the prize on a special edition of The Culture Show which goes out on BBC TWO at 11.20pm on the night of the award.

 

THE SHORTLIST

 

Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed (William Heinemann)

 

It is commonly believed that the Great Depression of 1929 resulted from a confluence of events beyond any one person’s or government’s control. In fact, as Liaquat Ahamed reveals, it was the decisions taken by a small number of central bankers that were the primary cause of the economic meltdown, the effects of which set the stage for the Second World War and reverberated for decades.

As yet another period of economic turmoil makes headlines today, the Great Depression and the year 1929 remain the benchmarks for true financial mayhem. Offering a new understanding of the global nature of financial crises, Lords of Finance offers a timely and arresting reminder of the enormous impact that the decisions of central bankers can have, of their fallibility, and of the terrible human consequences that can result when they are wrong.

 

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre (Fourth Estate)

 

How do we know if a treatment works, or if something causes cancer? Can the claims of homeopaths ever be as true - or as interesting - as the improbable research into the placebo effect?  Do journalists understand science? Why do we seek scientific explanations for social, personal and political problems? Are alternative therapists and pharmaceutical companies really so different, or do they just use the same old tricks to sell different types of pill? We are obsessed with our health and we are constantly bombarded with inaccurate, contradictory and sometimes even misleading information. Until now. Writer, broadcaster and medical doctor Ben Goldacre dismantles the dodgy science behind some of the great drug trials, court cases and missed opportunities of our time, but he also goes further by showing us the fascinating story of how we know what we know, and gives us the tools to uncover the bad science for ourselves.

 

The Lost City of Z by David Grann (Simon and Schuster)

 

Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett was the last of a breed of great British explorers who ventured into ‘blank spots’ on the map with little more than a machete, a compass and an unwavering sense of purpose. In 1925, one of the few remaining blank spots in the world was the Amazon. Fawcett believed the impenetrable jungle held a secret to a large, complex civilization like El Dorado, which he christened ‘City of Z’. When he and his son set out to find it, hoping to make one of the most important archaeological discoveries in history, they warned that none should follow them in the event that they did not return. They vanished without a trace. In The Lost City of Z, David Grann ventures into the hazardous world of the Amazon to retrace the footsteps of Colonel Fawcett and his followers, in a bracing attempt to solve one of the greatest mysteries. It is an irresistibly readable adventure story, a subtle examination of the strange and often violent encounters between Europeans and Amazonian tribes and a tale of lethal obsession.

 

Leviathan by Phillip Hoare (Fourth Estate)

 

After Herman Melville published his book, Moby Dick, in 1851, no one saw whales in quite the same way again, having created a modern myth out of an already legendary beast. But what is the true nature of the whale? Why does it fascinate us?

 

In Leviathan, Phillip Hoare seeks to locate and identify his life-long obsession with whales. Why does the whale so vividly inhabit our imaginations? Is it a symbol of Edenic innocence in a time of threatened species and climate change? Or an older emblem of evil, the grotesque fish which swallowed Jonah? Travelling around the globe in search of the whale, Philip Hoare sheds light on our perennial fascination with the strange creatures of the sea, whose nature remains tantalizingly undiscovered.

 

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes (HarperPress)

 

The Age of Wonder is Holmes's first major biography in over a decade and explores the scientific ferment that swept across Britain at the end of the 18th century. Holmes proposes a radical vision of science before Darwin, exploring the earliest ideas of deep time and deep space, the creative rivalry with the French scientific establishment, and the startling impact of discovery on great writers and poets such as Mary Shelley, Coleridge, Byron and Keats. Holmes shows how great ideas and experiments are born out of lonely passion, how scientific discoveries (and errors) are made, how intense relationships are forged and broken by research, and how religious faith and scientific truth collide. The result is breathtaking in its originality, its story-telling energy, and not least, in its intellectual significance.

 

Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality by Manjit Kumar (Icon Books)

For most people, quantum theory is a byword for mysterious, impenetrable science. And yet for many years it was equally baffling for scientists themselves. Manjit Kumar gives a dramatic and superbly-written history of this fundamental scientific revolution, and the divisive debate at its core. Quantum theory looks at the very building blocks of our world, the particles and processes without which it could not exist. Yet for 60 years most physicists believed that quantum theory denied the very existence of reality itself. In this tour de force of science history, Manjit Kumar shows how the golden age of physics ignited the greatest intellectual debate of the twentieth century.

 

Jacob Weisberg is joined on the judging panel by Dr Mark Lythgoe, neuroscientist at University College London 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, Deputy Editor at the London Evening Standard.

 

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) 

-ends-

 

For more information please contact

Hannah Blake or Caroline Brown at Colman Getty

T 020 7631 2666 or E hannah@colmangetty.co.uk

 

Notes to Editors

 

• The winner will be announced at an awards event at King’s Place, London on 30 June

• There were 166 entries in total and 19 titles on the longlist

• Electronic images of the shortlisted books and authors are available from Colman Getty

• 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 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), 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)