2000 - The Judges
Announcement

Nigella Lawson (Chair) is joined by an impressive array of literary, journalistic and academic talents: writer and actor Stephen Fry, historian Timothy Garton Ash, scientist Susan Greenfield and QC Baroness Helena Kennedy.

Nigella Lawson comments:

“It’s exciting to have a panel of judges with such wide-ranging knowledge, interests and passion.  It makes meetings something, unfamiliarly, to look forward to; and the authors under discussion can feel confident of an intelligent, sensitive and truly engaged response which is, after all, what they deserve.”

The Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction will be awarded on 23 May, with a prize for the winner of £30,000 and for each of the other shortlisted authors of £2,500.

The Prize aims to reward the best of non-fiction, from biography to travel, from popular science to the arts and current affairs.  The first ever prize awarded last year went to Antony Beevor for his book, Stalingrad, which went on to be a number one bestseller.  It became one of the most celebrated books of 1999 and is still in the bestseller lists with sales of over 320,000 in the UK and Commonwealth to date.

Unlike other awards, The Samuel Johnson Prize is open to the authors of all non-fiction books published in the UK, regardless of nationality.  A longlist will be released in April with the shortlist in early May.

The prize is sponsored by a retired British businessman and philanthropist, who wishes to remain anonymous.