BOOK AWARDS
The BBC4 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2004
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.
This year Michael Wood chairs the judging panel which consists of Aminatta Forna, Martha Kearney, Simon Singh and Francis Wheen. Michael Wood said, "It is a great thrill to be asked to chair the foremost non-fiction prize in Britain — and especially with such a distinguished panel of judges. Over the last few years the wonderful range and quality of works in non-fiction has proved that truth is not only stranger than fiction, but often more exciting and moving too."
Winner (announced 16th June 2004)
The winner has been announced as:
Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall by Anna Funder published by Granta (1862075808)
Shortlist (announced May)
Gulag: A History of the Soviet Camps by Anne Applebaum
John Clare: A Biography by Jonathan Bate
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall by Anna Funder
The Zanzibar Chest: A Memoir of Love and War by Aidan Hartley
Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland
Longlist (announced March)
| Title | Author | Publisher | ISBN |
| On Being John McEnroe | Tim Adams | Jersey Press | 0224069616 |
| Gulag: A History of the Soviet Camps | Anne Applebaum Allen | Lane/Penguin | 0713993227 |
| John Clare: A Biography | Jonathan Bate | Picador | 0330371061 |
| A Short History of Nearly Everything | Bill Bryson | Doubleday | 0385408188 |
| Capital of the Mind: How Edinburgh Changed the World | James Buchan | John Murray | 0385408188 |
| Margaret Thatcher Vol 2: The Iron Lady | John Campbell | Jonathan Cape | 0224061569 |
| A Thing in Disguise: The Visionary Life of Joseph Paxton | Kate Colquhoun | Fourth Estate | 0007143532 |
| Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time |
David Edmonds & John Eidinow | Faber & Faber | 0571214118 |
| Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall | Anna Funder | Granta | 1862075808 |
| The Zanzibar Chest: A Memoir of Love and War | Aidan Hartley | HarperCollins | 0002570599 |
| Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic | Tom Holland | Little, Brown | 0316861308 |
| Sowing the Wind: The Managing of the Middle East 1900-1960 | John Keay | John Murray | 0719555833 |
| High Tide: News from a Warming World | Mark Lyna | Flamingo | 000713939X |
| Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490-1700 | Diarmaid MacCulloch Allen | Lane/Penguin | 0713993707 |
| Mountains of the Mind: A History of A Fascination | Robert Macfarlan | Granta | 1862075611 |
| Clouds of Glory: A Hoxton Childhood | Bryan Magee | Jonathan Cape | 0224069799 |
| Our Final Century | Martin Rees | Heinemann | 1842127268 |
| Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar | Simon Sebag Montefiore | Weidenfeld & Nicolson | 1842127268 |
| Backroom Boys: The Secret Return of the British Boffin | Francis Spufford | Faber & Faber | 0571214967 |
| Orwell: The Life | DJ Taylo | Chatto & Windus | 0701169192 |
| Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire | Hugh Thoma | Weidenfeld & Nicolson | 0297645633 |
| Eats, Shoots and Leaves | Lynne Truss | Profile | 1861976127 |
| The Journals of a White Sea Wolf | Mariusz Wilk | Harvill Press | 1843430479 |
