The shortlist for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction has been announced:
* Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo (Portobello Books)
* Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis (The Bodley Head)
* The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane (Hamish Hamilton)
* The Better Angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker (Allen Lane)
* The Spanish Holocaust by Paul Preston (HarperPress)
* Strindberg A Life by Sue Prideaux (Yale University Press)
The Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction is the richest non-fiction prize in the UK, worth £20,000 to the winner. The prize aims to reward the best of non-fiction and is open to authors of all non-fiction books in the areas of current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography autobiography and the arts. The winner of the prize will be announced on 12 November.
For the first time, the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction is working with The Reading Agency to get six library-linked reading groups from across the UK to read and review the shortlisted books. Watch out for the reading group reviews on this website and on the Samuel Johnson Prize website.
