BOOK AWARDS
The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction 2009
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/books/features/samueljohnson
The BBC 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 2009)
Leviathan byPhilip Hoare published by Fourth Estate 9780007230136 .
Shortlist (announced May 2009)
| Title | Author | Publisher | ISBN |
| Lords of Finance: 1929, The Great Depression, and the Bankers who Broke the World | Liaquat Ahamed | William Heinemann | 9780434015412 |
| Bad Science | Ben Goldacre | Fourth Estate | 9780007240197 |
| The Lost City of Z | David Grann | Simon & Schuster | 9781847374363 |
| Leviathan | Philip Hoare | Fourth Estate | 9780007230136 |
| The Age of Wonder: How The Romantic Generation Discovered The Beauty and Terror of Science | Richard Holmes | Harpercollins | 9780007149520 |
| Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Meaning of Reality | Manjit Kumar | Icon Books | 9781848310292 |
Longlist (announced March 2009)
| Title | Author | Publisher | ISBN |
| Lords of Finance: 1929, The Great Depression, and the Bankers who Broke the World | Liaquat Ahamed | William Heinemann | 9780434015412 |
| Soul Of The Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare | Jonathan Bate | Penguin | 9780141015866 |
| Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town | Mary Beard | Profile Books | 9781861975164 |
| A Fork In The Road | Andre Brink | Harvill Secker | 9781846552441 |
| The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work | Alain de Botton | Hamish Hamilton | 9780241143537 |
| Science: A Four Thousand Year History | Patricia Fara | Oxford University Press | 9780199226894 |
| Bad Science | Ben Goldacre | Fourth Estate | 9780007240197 |
| The Lost City of Z | David Grann | Simon & Schuster | 9781847374363 |
| Leviathan | Philip Hoare | Fourth Estate | 9780007230136 |
| The Age of Wonder: How The Romantic Generation Discovered The Beauty and Terror of Science | Richard Holmes | Harpercollins | 9780007149520 |
| A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and their Remarkable Families | Michael Holroyd | Chatto & Windus | 9780701179878 |
| Darwin's Island. | Steve Jones | Little, Brown | 9781408700006 |
| Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Meaning of Reality | Manjit Kumar | Icon Books | 9781848310292 |
| The Man Who Invented History | Justin Marozzi | John Murray | 9780719567117 |
| Hester: The Remarkable Life of Dr Johnson's 'Dear Mistress' | Ian McIntyre | Constable | 9781845294496 |
| A Book of Silence | Sara Maitland | Granta | 9781847080424 |
| Sissinghurst: An Unfinished History | Adam Nicholson | HarperCollins | 9780007240548 |
| The Wisdom of Whores | Elizabeth Pisani | Granta | 9781847080004 |
| The House of Wittgenstein | Alexander Waugh | Bloomsbury | 9780747591856 |
