Thirteen authors now compete for the Baillie Gifford prize, with the winner set to receive £50,000. The longlist features established names and journalistic investigations, from Charlotte Higgins’s reporting on Ukrainian culture to Patrick Radden Keefe’s probe of a mysterious death in London and Ben Macintyre’s account of Cold War espionage.
Higgins appears on the list with Ukrainian Lessons: Art in a Time of War, a book based on reporting trips to Ukraine that examines cultural resistance to Russia’s invasion. Keefe, who previously won the prize in 2021 for Empire of Pain, is longlisted for London Falling, which follows the case of Zac Brettler, a teenager who fell from a luxury apartment after posing as the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch. Macintyre’s Redwood traces the story of a KGB double agent cultivated by MI6 in Tehran.
The longlist spans biography, ancient history, international reporting and true crime. Selections range from Nicholas Boggs’s Baldwin: A Love Story to Matthew Sweet’s study of Barbara Cartland, Andrea Wulf’s work on George Forster and Edmund Richardson’s portrait of Alexander the Great. Other titles investigate the Nord Stream pipeline explosions, wartime Paris, conflict in Syria, and life inside contemporary Russia.
Lead judge Kirsty Lang said the panel’s deliberations were lively, adding, "Chairing this prize is like being part of a very well-informed and opinionated book group," and that reducing entries to 13 books prompted "some forthright discussion." The judging panel also includes Bea Carvalho from Waterstones, Tiffany Jenkins, Sam Leith, Ravi Mattu and novelist Elif Shafak.
The prize began as the Samuel Johnson award in 1999 and has been sponsored by Baillie Gifford since 2016. The investment firm has faced criticism over stakes in fossil fuels and companies with links to Israel, and campaign group Fossil Free Books organised boycotts of festivals sponsored by the firm in 2024; that action contributed to Baillie Gifford ending partnerships with nine festivals.
The shortlist of six will be announced on 1 October and the winner on 4 November. Last year’s prize went to Australian writer Helen Garner for How to End a Story: Collected Diaries.
