The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction has announced its 2025 shortlist, spotlighting six remarkable works that traverse history, personal reckoning, and global complexity. Selected from over 350 submissions published between November 2024 and October 2025, the finalists reflect the prize’s commitment to rewarding literary excellence across biography, current affairs, science, and the arts.
The 2025 Shortlist
– Jason Burke – The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s
A gripping chronicle of radical movements and the ideological upheavals that shaped a decade.
– Helen Garner – How to End a Story: Collected Diaries
Garner’s candid diaries from 1978 to 1998 offer a raw, intimate portrait of a writer’s life, blending literary insight with personal vulnerability.
– Richard Holmes – The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief
Holmes explores the poet’s early years and his struggle with faith amid scientific revolution.
– Justin Marozzi – Captives and Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World
A sweeping historical account that reframes the global narrative of slavery.
– Adam Weymouth – Lone Wolf: Walking the Faultlines of Europe
A lyrical journey through Europe’s ecological and cultural fault lines, guided by the elusive wolf.
– Frances Wilson – Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark
A penetrating biography of the Scottish novelist, unraveling her mystique and literary legacy.
Judges’ Reflections
Chair of judges Robbie Millen described the shortlist as “bold company in the darkening autumn evenings,” praising the authors’ candour, courage, and scintillating prose. The panel includes historians, biographers, and cultural critics, ensuring a diverse lens on the entries.
Prize Details
The winner, to be announced on November 4, will receive £50,000. Each shortlisted author is awarded £5,000, underscoring the prize’s role in elevating nonfiction as a vital literary form.
This year’s shortlist is a testament to nonfiction’s power to illuminate, provoke, and connect. Whether through personal diaries, poetic biography, or global histories, these works invite readers into worlds both familiar and startlingly new.
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