Baillie Gifford Prize

In the lead up to the winner announcement on the 24th November we'll be celebrating each of the shortlisted books in a weekly mini-cast episode.

Tune into this mini-cast episode with prize director Toby Mundy and Sudhir Hazareesingh. In this episode of 'In Conversation' Sudhir  and Toby discuss how Sudhir came to write this biography and the lengthy process of compiling this world wide archival research on the Haitian revolution and Toussaint Louverture.

The 'In Conversation' mini-cast is commissioned by The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction and is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation.

In the lead up to the winner announcement on the 24th November we'll be celebrating each of the shortlisted books in a weekly mini-cast episode.

Tune into this mini-cast episode with prize director Toby Mundy and Matthew Cobb. In this episode of 'In Conversation' Matthew Cobb and Toby Mundy discuss how different ideas about the brain have emerged and developed throughout the centuries.

The 'In Conversation' mini-cast is commissioned by The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction and is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation.

In the lead up to the winner announcement on the 24th November we'll be celebrating each of the shortlisted books in a weekly mini-cast episode.

Listen to our first mini-cast with prize director Toby Mundy and Craig Brown. In this episode of 'In Conversation' Craig Brown and Toby Mundy explore the many different characters and stories that surround The Beatles and their success. This podcast was recorded and produced remotely. 

The 'In Conversation' mini-cast is commissioned by The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction and is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation.

Welcome to the Read Smart shortlist episode! Host, BBC's Razia Iqbal explores each of the 6 shortlisted titles and authors with 2020 judges, BBC Radio 4 Today presenter Martha Kearney, editor and novelist Simon Ings, and New York Times opinion editor Max Strasser. They go through each book individually and discuss how each title reflects the very best in non-fiction.

The 2020 shortlist is:

• One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown (Harper Collins, 4th Estate)

• The Idea of the Brain: A History by Matthew Cobb (Profile Books)

• Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture by Sudhir Hazareesingh (Penguin Random House, Allen Lane)

• Our Bodies, Their Battlefield: What War Does to Women by Christina Lamb (HarperCollins, William Collins)

• Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Woman’s Life in Nineteenth-Century Japan by Amy Stanley (Vintage, Chatto & Windus)

• The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury Publishing, Bloomsbury Circus)

Find out more about the shortlist: bit.ly/3740UG1

This episode was recorded and produced remotely. Find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @BGPrize and keep up to date at thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk

Welcome to the Read Smart shortlist episode! Host, BBC's Razia Iqbal explores each of the 6 shortlisted titles and authors with 2020 judges, BBC Radio 4 Today presenter Martha Kearney, editor and novelist Simon Ings, and New York Times opinion editor Max Strasser. They go through each book individually and discuss how each title reflects the very best in non-fiction.

The 2020 shortlist is:

• One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown (Harper Collins, 4th Estate)

• The Idea of the Brain: A History by Matthew Cobb (Profile Books)

• Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture by Sudhir Hazareesingh (Penguin Random House, Allen Lane)

• Our Bodies, Their Battlefield: What War Does to Women by Christina Lamb (HarperCollins, William Collins)

• Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Woman’s Life in Nineteenth-Century Japan by Amy Stanley (Vintage, Chatto & Windus)

• The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury Publishing, Bloomsbury Circus)

Find out more about the shortlist: https://bit.ly/3740UG1

This episode was recorded and produced remotely. Find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @BGPrize and keep up to date at thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk

Welcome to Read Smart, the 2020 longlist episode! BBC's Razia Iqbal explores each of the 13 titles and authors with 2020 judges, BBC presenter, professor and author Shahidha Bari, New Statesman writer Leo Robson, and journalist and author Bee Wilson.

The 2020 longlist is:

• One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown (Harper Collins, 4th Estate)

• Labours of Love - The Crisis of Care by Madeleine Bunting (Granta Publications, Granta)

• Dear Life by Rachel Clarke (Little, Brown)

• The Idea of the Brain: A History by Matthew Cobb (Profile Books)

• Eat the Buddha - The Story of Modern Tibet Through the People of One Town by Barbara Demick (Granta Publications, Granta)

• The Lives of Lucian Freud: FAME 1968- 2011 by William Feaver (Bloomsbury Publishing)

• Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture by Sudhir Hazareesingh (Penguin Random House, Allen Lane)

• Our Bodies, Their Battlefield: What War Does to Women by Christina Lamb (HarperCollins, William Collins)

• Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty (Little Toller)

• Those Who Forget: One Family's Story; A Memoir, a History, a Warning by Géraldine Schwarz (Pushkin Press)

• Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Woman’s Life in Nineteenth-Century Japan by Amy Stanley (Vintage, Chatto & Windus)

• The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury Publishing, Bloomsbury Circus)

• Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London Between the Wars by Francesca Wade (Faber & Faber)

Find out more about the longlist: https://bit.ly/2ZwHlBl

This episode was recorded and produced remotely.

Find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @BGPrize and keep up to date at thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk

Welcome to Read Smart, the 2020 longlist episode! BBC's Razia Iqbal explores each of the 13 titles and authors with 2020 judges, BBC presenter, professor and author Shahidha Bari, New Statesman writer Leo Robson, and journalist and author Bee Wilson.

The 2020 longlist is:

• One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown (Harper Collins, 4th Estate)

• Labours of Love - The Crisis of Care by Madeleine Bunting (Granta Publications, Granta)

• Dear Life by Rachel Clarke (Little, Brown)

• The Idea of the Brain: A History by Matthew Cobb (Profile Books)

• Eat the Buddha - The Story of Modern Tibet Through the People of One Town by Barbara Demick (Granta Publications, Granta)

• The Lives of Lucian Freud: FAME 1968- 2011 by William Feaver (Bloomsbury Publishing)

• Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture by Sudhir Hazareesingh (Penguin Random House, Allen Lane)

• Our Bodies, Their Battlefield: What War Does to Women by Christina Lamb (HarperCollins, William Collins)

• Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty (Little Toller)

• Those Who Forget: One Family's Story; A Memoir, a History, a Warning by Géraldine Schwarz (Pushkin Press)

• Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Woman’s Life in Nineteenth-Century Japan by Amy Stanley (Vintage, Chatto & Windus)

• The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury Publishing, Bloomsbury Circus)

• Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London Between the Wars by Francesca Wade (Faber & Faber)

Find out more about the longlist: https://bit.ly/2ZwHlBl

This episode was recorded and produced remotely. Find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @BGPrize and keep up to date at thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk

We’re excited to catch up with 2019 Baillie Gifford Prize winner Hallie Rubenhold and 2019 chair of judges Stig Abell. Hallie won with The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper and continues to work a busy schedule through lockdown; Stig is the host of the new Times Radio’s breakfast programme. Host Razia Iqbal finds out what both Hallie and Stig have been up to since last year’s ceremony, how the prize impacted Hallie’s work and together they speculate on how history and future art will document this pandemic. This episode was recorded and produced remotely. Find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @BGPrize and keep up to date at thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk.

Razia explores writing biographies with Baillie Gifford Prize alumni Lucy Hughes-Hallett (2013 winner), Sir Jonathan Bate (2015 shortlisted) and William Feaver (2019 shortlisted). They discuss the joys and challenges that come with studying and portraying other people’s lives.

Hughes-Hallet won the prize in 2013 with The Pike (Fourth Estate), Bate was shortlisted in 2015 with Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life and Feaver was shortlisted in 2019 with The Lives of Lucian Freud: Youth.

This episode was recorded and produced completely remotely.

Read Smart Podcast is commissioned by The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction and is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation.

Follow us @BGPrize on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

We discuss the rise in use and popularity of Artificial Intelligence. Joining podcast host Razia Iqbal is British novelist, scientist and 2020 Baillie Gifford prize judge, Simon Ings and mathematician Hannah Fry, author of 2018 Baillie Gifford Prize shortlisted book Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine. They explore our relationship, trust and increasing dependency on machines; issues around privacy; and if creating is solely a human skill or if technology can produce original art.

This episode was recorded and produced completely remotely.

Read Smart Podcast is commissioned by The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction and is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation.