Roy Jenkins' biography leads Samuel Johnson Prize 2014 shortlist

John Campbell's life of the politician and writer leads a strong field for the £20,000 prize

John Campbell's Roy Jenkins, Greg Grandin's The Empire of Necessity, Marion Coutts' The Iceberg: A Memoir, Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawk, Caroline Moorehead's Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France, Alison Light's Common People. Shortlisted for the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction 

By Hayden East

The Telegraph -  09 Oct 2014

John Campbell’s biography of politician Roy Jenkins heads a diverse shortlist for the 16th annual Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.

Competition for the £20,000 prize includes Alison Light’s exploration of generational poverty, Helen Macdonald’s story on goshawk training, and a heart-breaking account of familial loss from Marion Coutts. Greg Grandin and Caroline Moorehead round off the list.

A win for Campbell would mark the start of a winning streak for biographies: Lucy Hughes-Hallett was awarded the prize last year for The Pike, detailing the life of the Italian Fascist poet Gabriele D’Annunzio. The book went on to win the 2013 Costa Book Award for Biography.

Author and historian Claire Tomalin will chair the panel, with support from judges including Alan Johnson MP and Ruth Scurr, a Cambridge academic and critic for the Telegraph.

Speaking on the strength of the shortlist, Tomalin commented: “We found a consistently high quality of writing – clarity, colour, enthusiasm, vigour – and authors who were intellectually and emotionally engaged with their subjects.” 

This year’s winner will be announced on November 4.

The full shortlist is as follows:

Roy Jenkins (Jonathan Cape) by John Campbell (Review: )
The Iceberg: A Memoir (Atlantic) by Marion Coutts (Review: )
The Empire of Necessity (Oneworld) by Greg Grandin
Common People (Fig Tree) by Alison Light
H is for Hawk (Jonathan Cape) by Helen Macdonald (Review: )
Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France (Chatto & Windus) by Caroline Moorehead (Review: )

For further information visit thesamueljohnsonprize.co.uk

And story in The Bookseller:

PRH dominates Samuel Johnson prize shortlist Four of the six books on the shortlist for the £20,000 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction are titles from Penguin Random House, following the pattern set in fiction by the current Man Booker Prize shortlist.