2010 SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE LONGLIST
 Thursday 22 Apr 2010

·       Global and eclectic list demonstrating ‘the worldliness of good non-fiction writing’, with books that travel from China and India, to Africa and the Arctic

·       Two first-time authors with books covering subjects as diverse as skateboards in Iran to the secret lives of buildings

The judges for the 2010 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize announced the longlist today, Thursday 22 April. From an impressive number of submissions, 138 in total, the 19 titles on the longlist range widely in interest and subject matter continuing the prize's reputation for highlighting diverse and thought-provoking books.

• The Music Instinct - Philip Ball

• Alex's Adventures in Numberland - Alex Bellos

• Whole Earth Discipline - Stewart Brand

• Making Haste from Babylon - Nick Bunker

• Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India - William Dalrymple

• Nothing to Envy - Barbara Demick

• Country Driving - Peter Hessler

• The Secret Lives of Buildings - Edward Hollis

• Blood Knots - Luke Jennings

• Family Britain 1951 - 1957 - David Kynaston

• On Roads - Joe Moran

• When Skateboards Will Be Free - Said Sayrafiezadeh

• Too Big to Fail: Inside the Battle to save Wall Street - Andrew Ross Sorkin

• Burying the Bones - Hilary Spurling

• The Woman Who Shot Mussolini - Frances Stoner Saunders

• A Gambling Man - Jenny Uglow

• Dreams in a Time of War - Ngugi Wa Thiong'o

• The Magnetic North - Sara Wheeler

• Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human - Richard Wrangham

Samuel Johnson Prize

Guardian