Christchurch City Libraries lists literary prize winners and links to catalogue searches, but we may not hold copies of all titles mentioned.
The James Tait Black Prizes are Britain’s oldest literary awards. They were founded in 1919 by Janet Coats, the widow of publisher James Tait Black, to commemorate her husband. Two prizes, each of £10,000, are awarded annually for the best biography and the best work of fiction written in or translated in English in the previous year.
The awards have no sponsor — they are administered by the University of Edinburgh, with the winners being chosen by senior staff in the Department of English Literature at the University, assisted by PhD students in the shortlisting phase.
See more literary prize winners.
2023
- Traces of Enayat by Iman Mersal, translated by Robin Moger Winner
- Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors by Ian Penman Winner (two winners were announced this year)
- This Is Not Miami by Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes
- Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe
- Always Reaching: The Selected Writings of Anne Truitt by Anne Truitt
- Lifescapes by Anne Wroe
2022
- Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattan Darryl Pinckney Winner
- Homesick Jennifer Croft
- A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast Dorthe Nors, translated from Danish by Caroline Waight
- A History of Water: Being an Account of a Murder, an Epic and Two Visions of Global History by Edward Wilson-Lee
2021
-
Finding the Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music Amit Chaudhuri (Faber) Winner
- A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance Hanif Abdurraqib (Allen Lane)
- In Memory of Memory: A Romance Maria Stepanova, translated by Sasha Dugdale (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
- Burning Man: The Ascent of DH Lawrence Frances Wilson (Bloomsbury)
2020
-
A Ghost in the Throat Doireann Ní Ghríofa - The Warrior, the Voyager, and the Artist: Three Lives in an Age of Empire Kate Fullagar
- Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture Sudhir Hazareesingh
- Recollections of My Non-Existence Rebecca Solnit
2019
-
The Photographer at Sixteen: The Death and Life of a Fighter by George Szirtes Winner
- What You Have Heard is True by Carolyn Forché
- Constellations: Reflections from Life by Sinéad Gleeson
- Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval by Saidiya Hartman
2018
-
In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin Lindsey Hilsum Winner
- Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire Akala
- The Life of Stuff: A Memoir about the Mess We Leave Behind Susannah Walker
- The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books: Young Columbus and the Quest for a Universal Library Edward Wilson-Lee
2017
-
Ma’am Darling Craig Brown Winner
- The Day That Went Missing Richard Beard
- Ali, A Life Jonathan Eig
- The Dawn Watch, Joseph Conrad in a Global World Maya Jasanoff
2016
-
The Vanishing Man: In Pursuit of Velazquez Laura Cumming Winner
- A Life Discarded: 148 Diaries Found in a Skip Alexander Masters
- A Stain in the Blood: The Remarkable Voyage of Sir Kenelm Digby Joe Moshenska
- Rasputin Douglas Smith
2015
-
1606: William Shakespeare and the Year of Lear James Shapiro Winner
- The Blue Touch Paper: A Memoir David Hare
- Bloomsbury’s Outsider: A Life of David Garnett Sarah Knights
- John Aubrey: My Own Life Ruth Scurr
2014
- The valley: a hundred years in the life of a Yorkshire family Richard Benson Winner
- In plain sight: the life and lies of Jimmy Savile Dan Davies
- Eleanor Marx: a life Rachel Holmes
- Other people’s countries: a journey into memory Patrick McGuinness
2013
-
Penelope Fitzgerald: a life Hermione Lee Winner
- The boys in the boat: an epic true-life journey to the heart of Hitler’s Berlin Daniel James Brown
- Empress Dowager Cixi: the concubine who launched modern China Jung Chang
- Priscilla: the hidden life of an Englishwoman in wartime France Nicholas Shakespeare
2012
- The last sane man: Michael Cardew, modern pots, colonialism and the counterculture Tanya Harrod Winner
- Portrait of a novel: Henry James and the making of an American masterpiece Michael Gorra
- Joseph Anton: a memoir Salman Rushdie
- Circulation: William Harvey’s revolutionary idea Thomas Wright
2011
-
The last Pre-Raphaelite Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian imagination Fiona MacCarthy Winner
- Ben Jonson: a life Ian Donaldson
- Malcolm X: a life of reinvention Manning Marable
- Nikolaus Pevsner: the life Susie Harries
2010
- Burying the bones: Pearl Buck in China Hilary Spurling Winner
- Fordlandia: the rise and fall of Henry Ford’s forgotten jungle city Greg Grandin
- A life in pictures Alasdair Gray
- EM Forster: a new life Wendy Moffat
2009
-
William Golding: the man who wrote Lord of the Flies John Carey Winner
- Cheever: a life Blake Bailey
- Muriel Spark: the biography Martin Stannard
- A different drummer: the life of Kenneth MacMillan Jann Parry
- The English opium eater: a biography of Thomas De Quincey Robert Morrison
2008
- A strange eventful history: the dramatic lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and their remarkable families Michael Holroyd Winner
- Arthur Miller 1915-1962 Christopher Bigsby
- Gabriel Garcia Márquez: a life Gerald Martin
- Edward Carpenter: a life of liberty and love Sheila Rowbotham
- Chagall: love and exile Jackie Wullschlager
2007
-
God’s architect: Pugin and the building of Romantic Britain Rosemary Hill Winner
- Hand me my travelin’ shoes: in search of Blind Willie McTell Michael Gray
- Edith Wharton Hermione Lee
- Young Stalin Simon Sebag Montefiore
- John Stuart Mill: Victorian firebrand Richard Reeves
2006
- The man who went into the West: the life of R. S. Thomas Byron Rogers Winner
- George Mackay Brown: the life Maggie Fergusson
- John Evelyn: living for ingenuity Gillian Darley
- Bad faith: a forgotten history of family and fatherland Carmen Callil
2005
-
Edvard Munch: behind The Scream Sue Prideaux Winner
- Siegfried Sassoon: a biography Max Egremont
- Haw-Haw: the tragedy of William and Margaret Joyce Nigel Farndale
- The pursuit of victory: the life and achievements of Horatio Nelson Roger Knight
- Stuart: a life backwards Alexander Masters
- Voltaire almighty: a life in pursuit of freedom Roger Pearson
2004
- John Clare: a biography Jonathan Bate Winner
- Eichmann: his life and crimes David Cesarani
- Like a fiery elephant: the story of B. S. Johnson Jonathan Coe
- A life of H. L. A. Hart: the nightmare and the noble dream Nicola Lacey
- Nelson: a dream of glory John Sugden
- Malinowski: odyssey of an anthropologist 1884-1920 Michael W. Young
2003
-
Charles Darwin: Vol 2 - the power of place Janet Browne Winner
- White Mughals: love and betrayal in eighteenth-century India William Dalrymple
- Martha Gellhorn: a life Caroline Moorehead
2002
- The lunar men: The friends who made the future 1730-1810 Jenny Uglow Winner
- Anthony Blunt: his lives Miranda Carter
- Silvertown: an East End family memoir Melanie McGrath
- Becoming George: the life of Mrs W. B. Yeats Ann Saddlemyer
- Flaubert: a life Geoffrey Wall
2001
-
John Maynard Keynes: fighting for Britain 1927-1946 Robert Skidelsky Winner
- Hitler 1936-45: nemesis Ian Kershaw
- Frantz Fanon: a life David Macey
- Martin Frobisher: Elizabethan privateer James McDermott
- The past in hiding Mark Roseman
2000
- Experience Martin Amis Winner
- Rimbaud Graham Robb
-
The pale Abyssinian: a life of James Bruce, African explorer and adventurer Miles Bredin - The broken tower: the life of Hart Crane Paul Mariani
1999
- George Eliot: the last Victorian Kathryn Hughes Winner
- John Soane: an accidental Romantic Gillian Darley
- Lady Mary Wortley Montague: comet of the enlightenment Isobel Grundy
- Isaiah Berlin: a life Michael Ignatieff
- Mandela: the authorised biography Anthony Sampson
1998
- The life of Thomas More Peter Ackroyd Winner
- D. H. Lawrence: dying game 1922-1930 David Ellis
- The hidden Wordsworth: poet, lover, rebel, spy Kenneth R. Johnston
- Victor Hugo Graham Robb
- The trials of Radclyffe Hall Diana Souhami
1997
- W. B. Yeats: a life (Volume 1 - The apprentice mage 1865-1914) R. F. Foster Winner
- Che Guevara: a revolutionary life Jon Lee Anderson
- Standing in the sun: a life of J. M. W. Turner Anthony Bailey
- The last Governor: Chris Patten and the handover of Hong Kong Jonathan Dimbleby
- Turner: a life James Hamilton
