The Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography was established in 2003 in memory of
Elizabeth Longford
Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford, (''née'' Harman; 30 August 1906 – 23 October 2002), better known as Elizabeth Longford, was an English historian. She was a member of the Royal Society of Literature and was on the board of trustees ...
(1906-2002), the British author, biographer and historian. The £5,000 prize is awarded annually for a historical biography published in the preceding year.
The Elizabeth Longford Prize is sponsored by Flora Fraser and Peter Soros and administered by the
Society of Authors
The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to protect the rights and further the interests of authors. Membership of the society is open to "anyon ...
.
Winners
2020s
2022
* Winner: Andrew Roberts for ''George III: The Life and Reign of Britain’s Most Misunderstood Monarch'' (
Allen Lane
Sir Allen Lane (born Allen Lane Williams; 21 September 1902 – 7 July 1970) was a British publisher who together with his brothers Richard and John Lane founded Penguin Books in 1935, bringing high-quality paperback fiction and non-fictio ...
)
Shortlist:
*
Timothy Brennan
Timothy Andres Brennan (born 1953) is a cultural theorist, professor of literature, public speaker, and activist. He is known for his work on American imperialism, the political role of intellectuals, Afro-Latin music, and the problem of the "huma ...
for ''Places of Mind, A Life of Edward Said'' (Bloomsbury)
* Helen Carr for ''The Red Prince: The Life of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster'' (
Oneworld Publications
Oneworld Publications is a British independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Novin Doostdar and Juliet Mabey originally to publish accessible non-fiction by experts and academics for the general market. Based in London, it later added a li ...
)
* Jonathan Petropoulos for ''Göring's Man in Paris: The Story of A Nazi Art Plunderer and His World'' (
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...
)
* Jane Ridley for ''George V: Never a Dull Moment'' (Chatto & Windus)
2021
* Winner:
Fredrik Logevall
Fredrik Logevall is a Swedish-American historian and educator at Harvard University, where he is the Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and professor of history in the Harvard Facult ...
for ''JFK: Vol 1'' (
Penguin Books
Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...
)
Shortlist:
*
Sudhir Hazareesingh
Sudhir Hazareesingh, Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean, GCSK, Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (18 October 1961) is a Mauritian diaspora in the United Kingdom, British-Mauritian historian. He has been a fellow and Tutor in Politi ...
for ''Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture'' (Allen King)
*
Sarah LeFanu
Sarah Antoinette LeFanu (born 6 August 1953) is a Scottish author and academic.
Biography
Sarah Antoinette LeFanu was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. She worked as an editor for the Women's Press, and taught classes on feminism and science fiction ...
for ''Something of Themselves: Kipling, Kingsley, Conan Doyle and the Anglo-Boer War'' ( Hurst)
* Samanth Subramanian for ''A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J.B.S Haldane'' (
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...
)
2020
* Winner: D W. Hayton for ''Conservative Revolutionary: The Lives of Lewis Namier''
Shortlist:
* Andrew S. Curran for ''Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely''
* Richard J. Evans for ''Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History''
* Oliver Soden for ''Michael Tippett: The Biography''
* A. N. Wilson for '' Prince Albert: The Man Who Saved the Monarchy''
2010s
2019
* Winner: Julian Jackson for ''A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle''
Shortlist:
*
Diarmaid MacCulloch
Diarmaid Ninian John MacCulloch (; born 31 October 1951) is an English academic and historian, specialising in ecclesiastical history and the history of Christianity. Since 1995, he has been a fellow of St Cross College, Oxford; he was former ...
for ''Thomas Cromwell: A Life''
* Andrew Roberts for ''Churchill: Walking with Destiny''
* Jeffrey C. Stewart for ''The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke''
2018
* Giles Tremlett for '' Isabella of Castile: Europe's First Great Queen''
2017
* John Bew for ''Citizen Clem: A Biography of Attlee''
2016
* Andrew Gailey for ''The Lost Imperialist:
Lord Dufferin
Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, (21 June 182612 February 1902), was a British public servant and prominent member of Victorian society. In his youth he was a popular figure in the court of Queen Victoria, ...
, Memory and Mythmaking in an Age of Celebrity''
2015
*
Ben Macintyre
Benedict Richard Pierce Macintyre (born 25 December 1963) is a British author, reviewer and columnist for ''The Times'' newspaper. His columns range from current affairs to historical controversies. He has written some 15 books, and received n ...
for ''A Spy Among Friends:
Kim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 191211 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963, he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring that had divulged British secr ...
and the Great Betrayal''
2014
* Charles Moore for ''
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...
Philip Ziegler
Philip Sandeman Ziegler (24 December 1929 – 22 February 2023) was a British biographer and historian.
Background
Ziegler was born in Ringwood, Hampshire on 24 December 1929, the son of Louis Ziegler, an Army officer, and Dora Barnwell, a hom ...
for ''Edward Heath'' (bio of
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 1916 – 17 July 2005) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 ...
)
2010
*
Tristram Hunt
Tristram Julian William Hunt, (born 31 May 1974) is a British historian, broadcast journalist and former politician who has been Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum since 2017. He served as the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Sto ...
for ''The Frock-Coated Communist - The Revolutionary Life of
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels" ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.Mark Bostridge for ''
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during th ...
. The Woman and Her Legend''
2008
* Rosemary Hill for ''God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain''
2007
* Jessie Childs for ''
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...
's Last Victim: The Life and Times of
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, KG (1516/1517–19 January 1547) was an English nobleman, politician and poet. He was one of the founders of English Renaissance poetry and was the last known person to have been executed at the insistence of King ...
''Thomson, I. (2014). 'God's traitors: Terror and faith in elizabethan england', by jessie childs. FT.Com. Retrieved 2021-10-16.
2006
* Charles Williams for '' Petain: How the Hero of France Became a Convicted Traitor and Changed the Course of History''
2005
*
Ian Kershaw
Sir Ian Kershaw (born 29 April 1943) is an English historian whose work has chiefly focused on the social history of 20th-century Germany. He is regarded by many as one of the world's foremost experts on Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, and is ...
for ''Making Friends with Hitler:
Lord Londonderry
Marquess of Londonderry, of the County of County Londonderry, Londonderry ( ), is a title in the Peerage of Ireland.
History
The title was created in 1816 for Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry, Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Londonderry ...
, the Nazis, and the Road to War'
2004
* Katie Whitaker for ''Mad Madge:
Margaret Cavendish
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (; 1623 er exact birth date is unknown– 16 December 1673) was an English philosopher, poet, scientist, fiction writer, and playwright. She was a prolific writer, publishing over 12 original ...
, Duchess of Newcastle, Royalist, Writer and Romantic''
2003
*
David Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter who is a member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined in 1967, shortly before the departure of the founder member Syd Barrett. By the early 1980s, Pink F ...
for ''The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling''