BOOK AWARDS
The BBC4 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2005
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/books/features/samueljohnson
The BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize is the UK's most important prize for non-fiction. Named in honour of the critic, essayist, lexicographer, poet and biographer Samuel Johnson, the prize is funded by an anonymous British businessman and open to any work of non-fiction published in English in the UK, regardless of the author's nationality.
Set up in 1999 following the demise of the NCR Book Award, Samuel Johnson remains the UK's richest prize for non-fiction with the winner receiving £30,000 and each of the other short-listed authors receiving £1000.
Winner (announced June 2005)
The winner has been announced as:
Like a Fiery Elephant: The Story of B.S. Johnson by Jonathan Coe published by Picador (033035048x)
Shortlist (announced May 2005)
Like a Fiery Elephant: The Story of B.S. Johnson by Jonathan Coe
Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters
Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta
Istanbul : Memories of a City by Orhan Pamuk
Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse: The Conquest of Colour , 1909-1954 by Hilary Spurling
The Italian Boy: Murder and Grave Robbery in 1830s London by Sarah Wise
Longlist (announced March 2005)
| Title | Author | Publisher | ISBN |
| Perdita: The Life of Mary Robinson | Paula Byrne | Harpercollins | 0007164602 |
| Blood & Roses: The Paston Family in the Fifteenth Century | Helen Castor | Faber & Faber | 0571216706 |
| Like a Fiery Elephant: The Story of B.S. Johnson | Jonathan Coe | Picador | 033035048x |
| Mary Wollstoncraft: A New Genus. | Lyndall Gordon | Little, Brown | 0316728667 |
| Will in the World: How Shakespeare became Shakespeare | Stephen Greenblatt | Jonathan Cape | 022406276x |
| Bury the Chains: The British Struggle to Abolish Slavery | Adam Hochschild | Macmillan | 0333904915 |
| Parallel Worlds: The Science of Alternative Universes and our Future in the Cosmos | Michio Kaku | Allen Lane | 0713997281 |
| Stuart: A Life Backwards | Alexander Masters | Fourth Estate | 0007200366 |
| Salonica: City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950 | Mark Mazower | Harpercollins | 0007120230 |
| Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body | Armand Marie-Leroi | HarperCollins | 0002571137 |
| Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found | Suketu Mehta | Review | 0747221596 |
| Leonardo da Vinci: The Flights of the Mind | Charles Nicholl | Allen Lane | 0713994932 |
| Istanbul: Memories of a City | Orhan Pamuk | Faber & Faber | 0571218326 |
| In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War | David Reynolds | Allen Lane | 0713998199 |
| A Death in Brazil | Peter Robb | Bloomsbury | 0747573158 |
| The Command of the Ocean | N.A.M. Rodger | Allen Lane | 0713994118 |
| Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse: The Conquest of Colour, 1909-1954 | Hilary Spurling Hamish | Hamilton | 0241133394 |
| Hawkwood: Diabolical Englishman | Frances Stonor Saunders | Faber & Faber | 057121908x |
| A Little History of British Gardening | Jenny Uglow | Chatto & Windus | 0701169281 |
| The Italian Boy: Murder and Grave Robbery in 1830s London | Sarah Wise | Jonathan Cape | 0224071769 |
