Citizenkelly bought this prize to my attention and I will post the longlist and then the short list for 2008 on the next posting. Interested to know if anyone has read any of these - comments please.

Mad, Bad and Sad by Lisa Appignanesi (Virago)

Miracles of Life by JG Ballard (Harper Collins)

Nothing to be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes (Jonathan Cape)

Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart by Tim Butcher (Chatto & Windus)

Crow Country by Mark Cocker (Jonathan Cape)

Finding Moonshine: A Mathematician's Journey Through Symmetry by Marcus du Sautoy (Fourth Estate)

The Whisperers by Orlando Figes (Penguin)

The Authorized Biography of VS Naipaul by Patrick French (Picador)

Rudolf Nureyev by Julie Kavanagh (Fig Tree)

Austerity Britain 1945-1951 by David Kynaston (Bloomsbury)

Mrs Woolf and the Servants by Alison Light (Fig Tree)

Cold Cream: My Early Life and Other Mistakes by Ferdinand Mount (Bloomsbury)

Watching the Door by Kevin Myers (Atlantic Books)

Confessions of an Eco Sinner by Fred Pearce (Eden Project Books)

Great Hatred, Little Room: Making Peace in Northern Ireland by Jonathan Powell (Bodley Head)

A Life of Picasso, Volume III: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932 by John Richardson (Jonathan Cape)

The Discovery of France by Graham Robb (Picador)

The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross (Fourth Estate)

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury)

The Brother Gardeners by Andrea Wulf (William Heinemann)

Message edited by its author, May 15, 2008, 10:44pm.

This is the shortlist:

THE SUSPICIONS OF MR WHICHER
By Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury)
Jack Whicher of Scotland Yard, the most celebrated detective of the 1860s, investigates a country house murder in which the grieving family are the suspects.


BLOOD RIVER: A JOURNEY TO AFRICA'S BROKEN HEART
By Tim Butcher (Vintage)
The author recreates HM Stanley's famous expedition through the Congo. Solo.


CROW COUNTRY
By Mark Cocker (Jonathan Cape)
A prose poem in a long tradition of English pastoral writing, this book pieces together the complexities of the inner lives of rooks and jackdaws.


THE WHISPERERS: PRIVATE LIFE IN STALIN'S RUSSIA
By Orlando Figes (Allen Lane)
The hidden histories of the ordinary people who lived under Stalin's tyranny.

THE WORLD IS WHAT IT IS: THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF V.S. NAIPAUL
By Patrick French (Picador)
A luminous account of one of the most compelling literary figures of the last 50 years.

THE REST IS NOISE: LISTENING TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
By Alex Ross (Fourth Estate)
A sweeping musical history, from the salons of pre-war Vienna to Velvet Underground shows in the 60s.

Message edited by its author, May 15, 2008, 10:46pm.

Okay, Kiwidoc . . . I am I total Philistine? I've never heard of the Samuel Johnson Prize. I'm guessing it's for non-fiction?? But I don't know because I haven't even heard of any of these books. Like I said, I think I may be a Philistine (damn! I never wanted to be one of those).

Anyway, the title Mrs. Woolf and the Servants intrigues me (no touchstone today). I wonder if it about Virginia Woolf. Apparently she was very uncomfortable with servants (as shown nicely in the movie The Hours). I'll have to look that one up, because I like reading about Virginia Woolf even more than I like reading Virginia Woolf.

I have The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective here in the TBR pile, but that's as close as I come to reading anything on the list.

Figes was robbed of the prize 5 years when Natasha's Dance, a fantastic cultural history of Russia, didn't win.

I have read "Great Hatred, Little Room" and wrote a few thoughts at http://isthistheway.typepad.com/my_weblo...

From the BBC web site:

"This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Samuel Johnson Prize. Sponsored by BBC Four, it celebrates diverse and thought-provoking writing in non-fiction. The prize covers current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. The competition is open to authors of any nationality whose work is published in the UK in English."

Here are the past winners:

2007
Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran

2006
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro

2005
Like A Fiery Elephant: The Story of BS Johnson by Jonathan Coe

2004
Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall by Anna Funder

2003
Pushkin: A Biography by TJ Binyon

2002
Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 by Margaret MacMillan (That looks like it might be the UK title and that the US title is Paris 1919.)

2001
The Third Reich: A New History by Michael Burleigh

2000
Berlioz Volume 2: Servitude and Greatness by David Cairns

1999
Stalingrad by Antony Beevor

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher wins.

Message edited by its author, Jul 16, 2008, 4:35am.

The longlist for the 2009 prize was announced today:

Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed

Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare by Jonathan Bate

Pompeii by Mary Beard

A Fork in the Road by André Brink

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain De Botton

Science: A Four Thousand Year History by Patricia Fara

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre

The Lost City of Z by David Grann

Leviathan by Philip Hoare

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by
Richard Holmes

A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and their Remarkable Families by Michael Holroyd

Darwin's Island by Steve Jones

Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality by Manjit Kumar

The Man Who Invented History by Justin Marozzi

Hester: the Remarkable Life of Dr Johnson's 'Dear Mistress' by Ian McIntyre

A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland

Sissinghurst: An Unfinished History by Adam Nicolson

The Wisdom of Whores by Elizabeth Pisani

The House of Wittgenstein by Alexander Waugh

BBC SAMUEL JOHNSON LONGLIST ANNOUNCED

Science dominates Samuel Johnson prize longlist

Thanks for posting that list, kidzdoc. I have the Wittgenstein bio waiting to be read and the Pompeii book. Some of the science books look very enticing.

I agree, kiwidoc, several of these books look enticing. The one I'm most interested in is Bad Science, which is based on a column that the author, a NHS physician, has written in The Guardian since 2003, also entitled Bad Science. I just learned about this today, and will be reading his articles from now on.

A Book of Silence, The Wisdom of Whores, and Science: A Four Thousand Year History also look interesting.

The shortlist for the award was announced today:

Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed
Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
The Lost City of Z by David Grann
Leviathan by Phillip Hoare
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes
Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality by Manjit Kumar

The winner of the award will be announced on June 30.

From my point of view, musician and reader, I'm most interested in The Age of Wonder.

Leviathan by Philip Hoare is the winner of this year's prize:

'Classic' study of whales wins Samuel Johnson prize

As someone who fell in love with Moby Dick last year, this is a defo read. Thanks for posting the link, kidzdoc.