A hatful of facts about...the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize

Thursday, 23rd June 2011

1) The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize has a turbulent history. The prize came into being after the NCR prize fell into disrepute. Originally kept afloat courtesy of an anonymous donor, the BBC began sponsoring the prize in 2002 through its new channel BBC Four. This year, as part of the BBC's Year of Books, a special show will be aired exploring each of the six shortlisted writers for 2011 and announcing the winner.

2) The prize has the biggest victory pot of any non-fiction prize in the UK, with prize money of £20,000. Such a heady sum, however, still falls well short of its competition in the fiction prize stakes: the Man Booker winner gets a cheque for £50,000, the Costa Prize jackpot (for the Book of the Year winner) is £35,000 and the Orange prize victor takes home £30,000.

3) While the money might be more modest, the judging talent certainly isn't. Some of the starry names to have chaired the judging panels since the prize began in 1999 include James Naughtie, Nigella Lawson, Andrew Marr, David Dimbleby, Rosie Boycott and Lord Winston. This year the chair of the judges is the Times journalist and non-fiction writer, Ben Macintyre. He is joined, among others, by Spectator regular, Sam Leith. Macintyre claimed that this year's shortlist shows 'the depth and breadth of non-fiction writing, a reflection of a remarkable publishing year', adding '...five do not deserve to lose.'

4) The SJB prides itself on range. Unlike mocking of the stereotypical 'Booker' novel, the Samuel Johnson winners go from historical tomes (Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor) to literary history (1599 by James Shapiro) to biography (Jonathan Coe's Like a Fiery Elelphant) right the way through to non-fiction murder mystery (Kate Summerscale's The Suspicions of Mr Whicher).

5) The prize has spearheaded a renaissance of non-fiction. Former judge, Andrew Marr, claimed when adjudicating that non-fiction is now producing more interesting work than to be found on the fiction shelves. A similar refrain has been heard on these pages here and here. Coinciding with this year's shortlist, the Guardian have put together an exhaustive list of the 100 best non-fiction books. They include work by Herodotus, Tom Wolfe, TE Lawrence and Mahatma Gandhi.

Blog Tags: A hatful of facts about... , Biography , History , Media , Non-fiction , Prizes