Christchurch City Libraries lists literary prize winners and links to catalogue searches, but we may not hold copies of all titles mentioned.
Formerly known as The Samuel Johnson Prize (1999 – 2015) The Baillie Gifford Prize is the most prestigious non-fiction prize in the UK, worth £30,000 to the winner. From 2019 the prize amount increased to £50,000.
The Baillie Gifford Prize aims to reward the best of non-fiction and is open to authors of any nationality. It covers all non-fiction in the areas of current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts.
See more literary prize winners.
2024
- Question 7 Richard Flanagan (Australian) Winner
- The Story of a Heart Rachel Clarke (British)
- Nuclear War: A Scenario Annie Jacobsen (American)
- A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial Viet Thanh Nguyen (Vietnamese-American
- Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin Sue Prideaux (British)
- Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World David Van Reybrouck (Belgian) Translated by David Colmer and David McKay
2023
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Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World John Vaillant Winner
- Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock's Gender Service for Children Hannah Barnes
- Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China's Cultural Revolution Tania Branigan
- Revolutionary Spring: Fighting for a New World 1848-1849 Christopher Clark
- Time’s Echo: The Second World War, The Holocaust, and The Music of Remembrance Jeremy Eichler
- Mr. B: George Balanchine’s Twentieth Century Jennifer Homans
2022
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Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne Katherine Rundell Winner
- Legacy of Violence Caroline Elkins
- The Escape Artist Jonathan Freedland
- My Fourth Time, We Drowned Sally Hayden
- The Restless Republic Anna Keay
- A Fortunate Woman Polly Morland
2021
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Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe Winner
- Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn
- Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945–1955 by Harald Jähner, translated by Shaun Whiteside
- Things I Have Withheld by Kei Miller
- Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John Preston
- Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi
2020
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One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown Winner
- The Idea of the Brain: A History by Matthew Cobb
- Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture by Sudhir Hazareesingh
- Our Bodies, Their Battlefield: What War Does to Women by Christina Lamb
- Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Woman’s Life in Nineteenth-Century Japan by Amy Stanley
- The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story by Kate Summerscale
2019
-
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Hallie Rubenhold Winner
- Furious Hours Casey Cep
- On Chapel Sands Laura Cumming
- The Lives of Lucian Freud: Youth William Feaver
- Maoism: A Global History Julia Lovell
- Guest House for Young Widows Azadeh Moaveni
2018
- Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy Serhii Plokhy Winner
- Hello World: How to be Human in The Age of The Machine Hannah Fry
- The Spy and the Traitor Ben Macintyre
- Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man Thomas Page McBee
- Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China’s Last Golden Age Stephen R Platt
- She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions and Potential of Heredity Carl Zimmer
2017
-
How to Survive A Plague David France Winner
- The Islamic Enlightenment: The Modern Struggle Between Faith and Reason Christopher de Bellaigue
- Border: A Journey to The Edge of Europe Kapka Kassabova
- An Odyssey: A Father, A Son and an Epic Daniel Mendelsohn
- To Be A Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death Mark O’Connell
- Belonging: the Story of the Jews, 1492-1900 Simon Schama
2016
-
Second-hand Time Svetlana Alexievich, translated by Bela Shayevich
- Negroland: A Memoir Margo Jefferson
- The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land In Between Hisham Matar
- East West Street: On the Origins of "genocide" and "crimes Against Humanity" Philippe Sands Winner
2015
-
Neurotribes: the legacy of autism and how to think smarter about people who think differently Steve Silberman Winner
- Ted Hughes: the unauthorised life Jonathan Bate
- Landmarks Robert Macfarlane
- The four-dimensional human Laurence Scott
- The unravelling: high hopes and missed opportunities in Iraq Emma Sky
- This divided island Samanth Subramanian
2014
-
H is for Hawk Helen Macdonald Winner
- Roy Jenkins: a well-rounded life John Campbell
- The iceberg: a memoir Marion Coutts
- Empire of necessity: slavery, freedom, and deception in the New World Greg Grandin
- Common people: the history of an English family Alison Light
- Village of secrets: defying the Nazis in Vichy France Caroline Moorehead
2013
-
The pike: Gabriele D'Annunzio, poet, seducer and preacher of war Lucy Hughes-Hallett Winner
- Empires of the dead: how one man’s vision led to the creation of WWW1’s war graves David Crane
- Return of a king William Dalrymple
- A sting in the tale Dave Goulson
- Under another sky Charlotte Higgins
- Margaret Thatcher Volume one, Not for turning: the authorized biography Charles Moore
2012
-
Into the silence: the Great War, Mallory and the conquest of Everest Wade Davis Winner
- Behind the beautiful forevers Katherine Boo
- The old ways Robert MacFarlane
- The better angels of our nature Steven Pinker
- The Spanish holocaust Paul Preston
- Strindberg, a life Sue Prideaux
2011
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Mao's great famine: the history of China's most devastating catastrophe, 1958-62 Frank Dikotter Winner
- Caravaggio: a life sacred and profane Andrew Graham-Dixon
- Liberty's Exiles: the loss of America and the remaking of the British Empire Maya Jasanoff
- The rational optimist: how prosperity evolves Matt Ridley
- Bismarck: a life Jonathan Steinberg
- Reprobates John Stubbs
2010
-
Nothing to envy: real lives in North Korea Barbara Demick Winner
- Alex's adventures in Numberland Alex Bellos
- Blood knots Luke Jennings
- Too big to fail Andrew Ross Sorkin
- A gambling man: Charles II's restoration game Jenny Uglow
- Catching fire: how cooking made us human Richard Wrangham
2009
-
Leviathan, or the whale Philip Hoare Winner
- Lords of finance Liaquat Ahamed
- Bad science Ben Goldacre
- The lost city of Z David Grann
- The age of wonder: how the Romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science Richard Holmes
- Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the great debate about the nature of reality Manjit Kumar
2008
-
The suspicions of Mr Whicher Kate Summerscale Winner
- Blood river: a journey to Africa's broken heart Tim Butcher
- Crow Country Mark Cocker
- The whisperers: private life in Stalin's Russia Orlando Figes
- The world is what it is: the authorized biography of V. S. Naipaul Patrick French
- The rest is noise: listening to the 20th century Alex Ross
2007
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Imperial life in the Emerald City Rajiv Chandrasekaran Winner
- Murder in Amsterdam Ian Buruma
- Having it so good: Britain in the Fifties Peter Hennessy
- Daughter of the desert Georgina Howell
- Brainwash Dominic Streatfeild
- The Verneys Adrian Tinniswood
2006
-
1599: a year in the Life of William Shakespeare James Shapiro Winner
- Untold stories Alan Bennett
- The sale of the late king's goods Jerry Brotton
- Bad faith Carmen Callil
- Postwar Tony Judt
- The Orientalist Tom Reiss
2005
- Like a fiery elephant: the life of B. S. Johnson Jonathan Coe Winner
- Stuart: a life backwards Alexander Masters
- Maximum city: Bombay lost and found Suketu Mehta
- Istanbul: memories of a city Orhan Pamuk
- Matisse the master Hilary Spurling
- The Italian boy: murder and grave robbery in 1830s London Sarah Wise
2004
-
Stasiland: stories from behind the Berlin Wall Anna Funder Winner
- Gulag: a history of the Sovietcamps Anne Applebaum
- John Clare: a biography Jonathon Bate
- A short history of nearly everything Bill Bryson
- The Zanzibar chest: a memoir of love and war Aidan Hartley
- Rubicon: the triumph and tragedy of the Roman Republic Tom Holland
2003
- Pushkin T. J. Binyon Winner
- Natasha's dance: a cultural history of Russia Orlando Figes
- The devil that danced on the water: a daughter's memoir of her father, her family, her country and a continent Aminatta Forna
- Dr Tatiana's sex advice to all creation Olivia Judson
- Samuel Pepys: the unequalled self Claire Tomalin
- Nelson: love and fame Edgar Vincent
2002
-
Peacemakers: the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and its attempt to end war Margaret Macmillan Winner
- The voices of Morebath Eamon Duffy
- The snow geese William Fiennes
- The invention of clouds: how an amateur meteorologist forged the language of the skies Richard Hamblyn
- Churchill: a biography Roy Jenkins
- Unfinest hour: Britain and the destruction of Bosnia Brendan Simms
2001
- The Third Reich Michael Burleigh Winner
- Trilobite! Eyewitness to evolution Richard Fortey
- Night of stone Catherine Merridale
- Rimbaud Graham Robb
- Prince of princes: the life of Potemkin Simon Sebag Montefiore
- John Maynard Keynes Robert Skidelsky
2000
- Berlioz: volume 2 David Cairns Winner
- Playing the Moldovans at tennis Tony Hawks
- Yeats's ghosts Brenda Maddox
- Genome Matt Ridley
- Deliver us from evil William Shawcross
- Karl Marx Francis Wheen
1999
-
Stalingrad Antony Beevor Winner
- C: because cowards get cancer too John Diamond
- Coleridge: darker reflections Richard Holmes
- Hitler Ian Kershaw
- Wealth and poverty of nations David Landes
- Pilate Ann Wroe
