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BBC FOUR SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR
NON-FICTION 2008
LONGLIST ANNOUNCED
The judges for the 2008 BBC FOUR Samuel Johnson Prize announced the longlist today, 16th April. Now in its tenth year the prize is the world’s richest non-fiction prize and is worth £30,000 to the winner.
From 131 entries and 31 call-ins, the 20 titles on the longlist range widely in interest and continue the reputation of the prize for diverse and thought-provoking books.
The list includes a daring and adventurous journey down the Congo; a discourse on life and death; the biography of an enigmatic genius, V S Naipaul, and a dark and grim account of The Troubles.
Rosie Boycott, Chair of the judges, comments:
“The 20 books on this year's BBC FOUR Samuel Johnson longlist encompass everything that is exciting, innovative and brilliant about non-fiction in Britain today. The sheer scope and range of the books is extraordinary: from mathematics to music, from adventures in the Congo to meditations on mortality, from the power-broking of Northern Ireland to the detective story that began one of literature's most ubiquitous genres: all life is here. As judges, we've been privileged to make the journey through the best of the best of this year's non-fiction output and we're confident that all these books will inform, enlighten and delight their readers. Each one of them amply bears out the simple fact that 'all the best stories are true’.”
Rosie Boycott is joined by a dynamic and eclectic panel of judges who offer a wide range of literary, journalistic and academic experience. They are literary editor of the Guardian, Claire Armitstead; poet, Daljit Nagra; Director of the Science Museum, Chris Rapley; and documentary maker and journalist, Hannah Rothschild.
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