Baillie Gifford Prize

Our Read Smart shortlist series continues! In this episode, Prize Director Toby Mundy speaks with Matthew Sweet about his book The Great Dictator: A Life of Barbara Cartland, shortlisted for the 2026 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.

Famous for her pink dresses, extravagant eyelashes and hundreds of romantic novels, Barbara Cartland cultivated an unmistakable public image. Drawing on her private archives and accounts from those who knew her, Sweet reveals the ambitious, complicated woman behind it. From country house parties to the divorce court, this biography follows a life as dramatic as the stories she dictated from her sofa.

Listen now to discover the surprising story behind one of Britain’s most recognisable literary personalities.

This podcast is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. To keep up with all our Prize news year-round, follow @BGPrize on Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok and YouTube.

Our Read Smart shortlist series continues! In this episode, Prize Director Toby Mundy speaks with Edmund Richardson about his book Alexander: God, King, Man, shortlisted for the 2026 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.

Drawing on new discoveries and sources in twelve ancient languages, Richardson brings us closer to the man behind the myth of Alexander the Great. From his uncertain beginnings as a young king to the conquests that transformed the ancient world, this vivid biography explores the ambition, relationships and contradictions that shaped one of history’s most famous figures.

Listen now to discover the story behind the legend. This podcast is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. To keep up with all our Prize news year-round, follow @BGPrize on Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok and YouTube.

We’re back with a brand new series of the Read Smart podcast!

In this episode, Prize Director Toby Mundy speaks with Author Patrick Radden Keefe, shortlisted for the 2026 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction with his new book London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth. In his inimitably gripping and forensic style, Keefe follows Zac’s parents on a dark journey to find out what brought him to the balcony that night – and how a teenager’s life of make-believe drew him into the city’s terrifying underworld. Listen now to hear all about it. This podcast is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation.

To keep up with all of our Prize news year-round, follow @BGPrize on Instagram, Facebook,  X, TikTok and YouTube.

It's the final episode of the Read Smart podcast hearing from our 6 shortlisted authors! In this episode, Prize Executive Director Toby Mundy speaks with Adam Weymouth about Lone Wolf: Walking the Faultlines of Europe, one of the shortlisted works for the 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.

Weymouth follows the journey of a wolf across Europe, weaving together nature writing, identity and geopolitics, and raising profound questions about belonging and the wild. In this conversation he reflects on wilderness, migration and what it means to stray far from home.

Listen now to engage with a story where animal tracks become pathways into human experience. This podcast is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. To keep up with all of our Prize news year-round, follow @BGPrize on Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok and YouTube.

It's Episode 5 of the Read Smart podcast! In this episode, Prize Executive Director Toby Mundy speaks with biographer and historian Richard Holmes about The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief, a shortlisted title for the 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.

Holmes charts Alfred Lord Tennyson’s early years against the backdrop of science, faith and poetic ambition, revealing how the nineteenth-century sea of ideas shaped a generation. In this conversation, he explores biography, belief, and how a poet confronted the emerging challenges of his time.

Listen now to discover this elegant and searching study of mind, myth and meaning. This podcast is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. To keep up with all of our Prize news year-round, follow @BGPrize on Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok and YouTube.

It’s time for Episode 4 of the Read Smart podcast! In this episode, Prize Executive Director Toby Mundy speaks with journalist and author Jason Burke about The Revolutionists, shortlisted for the 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. Burke examines the ideological ferment of the 1970s, exploring the militants, activists and ideas that shaped modern revolt.

In this conversation, he explores how radical change begins, what freedom costs and the lasting legacy of insurgency in global politics.

Listen now to dive into a gripping narrative of revolt and consequence. This podcast is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. To keep up with all of our Prize news year-round, follow @BGPrize on Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok and YouTube.

We’re diving into Episode 3 of the Read Smart podcast! In this episode, Prize Executive Director Toby Mundy speaks with acclaimed writer Helen Garner about How to End a Story, shortlisted for the 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. Garner reflects on memory, mortality and the craft of turning life into narrative, drawing out the tender, awkward and surprising moments that shape a life on the page.

In this conversation, she explores the ethics of memoir, the discipline of revision, and how a writer contends with truth when memory is partial. Listen now to hear a frank and intimate discussion about the art of telling and ending a story.

This podcast is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. To keep up with all of our Prize news year-round, follow @BGPrize on Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok and YouTube.

We’re back with episode 2 of the Read Smart podcast! In this episode, Prize Executive Director Toby Mundy speaks with author and historian Justin Marozzi, shortlisted for the 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction for his book Captives and Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World.

Marozzi traces 1,500 years of slavery across three continents, revealing how the institution shaped societies from the medieval caliphates to the modern day. In this conversation, he discusses the challenges of uncovering the voices of the enslaved, the differences between slavery in the Islamic world and the transatlantic slave trade and the enduring legacy of enslavement in the 21st century.

Listen now to hear more about this powerful and eye-opening work.

This podcast is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. To keep up with all of our Prize news year-round, follow @BGPrize on Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok and YouTube.

We’re back with a brand new series of the Read Smart podcast! In this episode, Prize Executive Director Toby Mundy speaks with Author Frances Wilson, shortlisted for the 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction with her new book Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark.

Frances Wilson unravels the life of Muriel Spark - novelist, poet, Catholic convert and master of literary mischief, whose life often echoed the plots of her fiction. From wartime propaganda and blackmail to creative reinvention, this conversation explores Spark’s uncanny connection between art and experience.

Listen now to hear all about it. This podcast is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. To keep up with all of our Prize news year-round, follow @BGPrize on Instagram, Facebook,  X, TikTok and YouTube.

Tune into the final Read Smart podcast of the year, where Georgina Godwin speaks to the Baillie Gifford Prize 2024 winner, Richard Flanagan. Hear more from Richard about his origins as an author, alongside how the events from both history and his personal life inspired the ‘chain reactions’ explored throughout Question 7.

Listen now to hear all about it. This podcast is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. To keep up with all of our Prize news all year round, follow @BGPrize on Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok and YouTube.