Orwell Prize

The Orwell Prize is regarded as the pre-eminent British prize for political writing. Every year, two prizes are awarded: one for a book, and the other for political journalism. In each case, the winner is the shortlisted entry which comes closest to George Orwell's own ambition to 'make political writing into an art'.

The prize was founded by Sir Bernard Crick in 1993, using money from the royalties of the hardback edition of his biography of Orwell. Its sponsors are Richard Blair, the adopted son of Orwell, Reuters, The Political Quarterly, Blackwell Publishing, Media Standards Trust, and A. M. Heath & Company.

List of winners

Book category

• 1994 Anatol Lieven The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to Independence
• 1995 Fionnuala O'Connor In Search of a State: Catholics in Northern Ireland
• 1996 Fergal Keane Season of Blood: A Rwandan Journey
• 1997 Peter Godwin Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa
• 1998 Patricia Hollis Jennie Lee: A Life
• 1999 D. M. Thomas Alexander Solzhenitsyn: a Century in His Life
• 2000 Brian Cathcart The Case of Stephen Lawrence
• 2001 Michael Ignatieff Virtual War
• 2002 Miranda Carter Anthony Blunt: His Lives
• 2003 Francis Wheen Hoo-hahs and Passing Frenzies: Collected Journalism 1991-2000
• 2004 Robert Cooper The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty First Century
• 2005 Michael Collins The Likes of Us: A Biography of the White Working Class
• 2006 Delia Jarrett-Macauley Moses, Citizen and Me
• 2007 Peter Hennessy Having It So Good: Britain in the 1950s
• 2008 Raja Shehadeh Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape

Journalism category

• 1994 Neal Ascherson
• 1995 Paul Foot and Tim Laxton
• 1996 Melanie Phillips
• 1997 Ian Bell
• 1998 Polly Toynbee
• 1999 Robert Fisk
• 2000 David McKittrick
• 2001 David Aaronovitch
• 2002 Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
• 2003 Brian Sewell
• 2004 Vanora Bennett
• 2005 Matthew Parris
• 2006 Timothy Garton Ash
• 2007 Peter Beaumont
• 2008 Johann Hari

Book Prize Shortlist 2008

• Nick Cohen What's Left?
• Jay Griffiths Wild
• William Hague William Wilberforce
• Ed Husain The Islamist
• Marina Lewycka Two Caravans
• Raja Shehadeh Palestinian Walks
• Clive Stafford Smith Bad Men

Journalism Prize Shortlist 2008

• Johann Hari The Independent
• Clive James BBC Radio 4
• Anton La Guardia The Economist
• Andrew Rawnsley The Observer
• Mary Riddell The Observer
• Paul Vallely The Independent

Special awards

In 2007, BBC Newsnight was presented with a special award, the judges noting: 'When we were discussing the many very fine pieces of journalism that were submitted Newsnight just spontaneously emerged in our deliberations as the most precious and authoritative home for proper reporting of important stories, beautifully and intelligently crafted by journalists of rare distinction.' In 2008, Clive James was given a special award.

Source

The Orwell Prize - Official Site

Media Guardian - Orwell Prize Shortlist 2008

References