The true story of a teenager who died after being caught up in the shadowy world of London’s superrich is among six finalists announced Thursday for Britain’s leading nonfiction book prize.
“London Falling” by Patrick Radden Keefe is on the shortlist for the 50,000-pound ($67,000) Baillie Gifford Prize. The New Yorker magazine writer won the prize in 2021 for “Empire of Pain,” his book about the Sackler pharmaceutical family and its role in unleashing America’s opioid crisis.
The biography-heavy list of finalists includes Nicholas Boggs’ “Baldwin: A Love Story,” about the American writer James Baldwin; Matthew Sweet’s biography of romance novelist Barbara Cartland, “The Great Dictator”; Edmund Richardson’s study of Alexander the Great, “Alexander: God, King, Man”; and Andrea Wulf’s “The Traveler,” about the 18th-century naturalist and explorer George Forster.
Anand Gopal’s Syrian saga “Days of Love and Rage: A Story of Revolution” rounds out the list.
Journalist Kirsty Lang, who is chairing the judging panel, said, “there is something for everyone: a romantic novelist, a civil rights activist, an 18th-century explorer, an ancient king, the Syrian revolution told from the ground up, and a dark portrait of contemporary London.”
“It is an eclectic list united by stories of people navigating a world full of conflict as well as hope,” she said.
The winner will be announced Nov. 4 at a ceremony in London.
Founded in 1999, the prize recognizes English-language books in current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. It has been credited with bringing an eclectic slate of fact-based books to a wider audience.
