Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction

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.

2023 

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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