Wednesday, September 03, 2014

2014 Samuel Johnson prize longlist – in pictures

Two surgeons, an ‘accidental professor’ and a songwriter are among the contenders for the UK’s most prestigious award for nonfiction

Unexpected Professor
The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life by John Carey (Faber)
‘At times it feels like a series of free-standing disquisitions on individual books tied together with a fetching thread of reminiscence. It is for the most part very skilfully done.’ – Stefan Collini
• Read the full review here

Romany and Tom by Ben Watt
Romany and Tom by Ben Watt (Bloomsbury)
‘Watt, best known as half of Everything But the Girl, says one reason he chose to study at Hull University at the start of the 1980s was because Philip Larkin was a librarian there. The melancholic poet’s voice can be heard in the very first line of Romany and Tom.’ - Sukhdev Sandhu
• Read the full review here
Village of Secrets by Caroline Moorehead
Village of Secrets by Caroline Moorehead (Chatto & Windus)
‘Moorehead’s rigorously researched and well-balanced account relates how an isolated agricultural community not only managed to hide some 800 Jewish refugees, but helped a further 3,000 to cross France’s borders to safety in Switzerland.’ - Elizabeth Lowry
•Read the full review here

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