The Orwell Prize 2015 Longlists announced

Wednesday 25 March 2015

12 Books, 15 Journalists, and 14 pieces of social reporting announced for Orwell Prize Longlist 2015 – Book Prize longlist includes four first-time authors as well as several established political writers – Journalism Prize longlist includes Economist writer Rosie Blau and Middle East reporter David Gardner – Prestigious new reporting prize longlist includes journalism on themes as diverse as London’s housing problems and the problem of loneliness amongst the elderly     Longlists for the Orwell Prize 2015, Britain’s most prestigious prize for political writing, were announced at 12pm today. From hundreds of entries, 12 books, 15 journalists, and 14 pieces of social reporting were chosen. The judges for the 2015 Book Prize are Claire Armitstead, Gillian Slovo, and Tony Wright. The judges for the 2015 Journalism Prize are Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Stewart Purvis, and Caroline Thomson. The judges for the 2015 Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils are Anushka Asthana, Richard Sambrook, Nicholas Timmins, and Julia Unwin. The three £3000 prizes will be announced in a ceremony on 21st May 2015. The director of the Orwell Prize, Professor Jean Seaton, said: “We take journalism for granted as just part of our everyday experience. But when you sit down and read the journalism and political writing that has come in for the prize, it is so good that it is almost shocking. The new Joseph Rowntree Foundation-sponsored prize also shows just how journalism is evolving in tremendous new ways. The Book Prize longlist, meanwhile, offers a fabulous array of insights into our national and international situation: they are great books that together help analyse the world.” Stewart Purvis, a judge for the 2015 Journalism Prize, said: “The entries provide an encouraging and rather reassuring snapshot of the writing talent currently at work across the U.K. I came away optimistic that journalism is flourishing in both old and new ways.” Anushka Asthana, a judge for the 2015 Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils, said: “What each of these impressive long list entries achieved was to combine cutting edge investigative journalism with beautifully crafted storytelling – whether that be in print, on TV, or through innovative digital platforms.” Fellow judge Nick Timmins stated: “The entries showed that the issues remain live, but so does some excellent reporting of them – increasingly by using a mix of words and video, or graphics and analysis, in ways that blur the distinctions between print, broadcasting, and online.”

 

Book Prize longlist:

Jamie Bartlett, THE DARK NET (William Heinemann) John Campbell, ROY JENKINS (Jonathan Cape) Rana Dasgupta, CAPITAL: THE ERUPTION OF DELHI (Canongate) Dan Davies, IN PLAIN SIGHT: THE LIFE AND LIES OF JIMMY SAVILE (Quercus) Nick Davies, HACK ATTACK (Chatto & Windus) Robert Ford and Matthew Goodwin, REVOLT ON THE RIGHT (Routledge) Zia Haider Rahman, IN THE LIGHT OF WHAT WE KNOW (Pan Macmillan) David Kynaston, MODERNITY BRITAIN (Bloomsbury) Louisa Lim, THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF AMNESIA (Oxford University Press) David Marquand, MAMMON’S KINGDOM: AN ESSAY ON BRITAIN, NOW (Penguin) James Meek, PRIVATE ISLAND: WHY BRITAIN NOW BELONGS TO SOMEONE ELSE (Verso) Lara Pawson, IN THE NAME OF THE PEOPLE: ANGOLA’S FORGOTTEN MASSACRE (I. B. Tauris)  

Journalism Prize longlist:

Ian Birrell, Mail On Sunday, The Guardian Rosie Blau, The Economist Martin Chulov, The Guardian David Gardner, The Financial Times Anthony Loyd, The Times James Meek, London Review of Books Suzanne Moore, The Guardian Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi, OpenDemocracy.net, Lacuna, New Statesman Melanie Phillips, The Times, The Spectator David Pilling, Financial Times Steve Richards, The Independent Mary Riddell, The Daily Telegraph Peter Ross, Scotland on Sunday Clare Sambrook, OpenDemocracy.net Kim Sengupta, The Independent  

 Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils longlist:

George Arbuthnott, Slaves in peril on the sea Lucy Bannerman, FGM: Child abuse that’s gone mainstream Michael Buchanan and Andy McNicoll, Mental health crisis Aditya Chakrabortty and Guardian team, London’s housing crisis Steve Connor, The lost girls Edward Docx, Walking with Karl Alison Holt, Care of the elderly and vulnerable Nick Mathiason, A great British housing crisis Lindsay Pantry, Loneliness: The hidden epidemic Lindsay Poulton and Guardian team, The shirt on your backs Randeep Ramesh, Casino-style gambling Louise Tickle, Domestic abuse: How victims are failed by society and the state Times team, Secrets of Britain’s teen terror trade uncovered Mark Townsend, Serco: A hunt for the truth inside Yarl’s Wood   ENDS Notes to editors: 1.     The Orwell Prize is Britain’s most prestigious prize for political writing. Every year, prizes are awarded to the book and journalism entry which comes closest to George Orwell’s ambition ‘to make political writing into an art’. Each Prize is worth £3000. 2.     The Prize was founded by the late Professor Sir Bernard Crick in its present form in 1993, awarding its first prizes in 1994. The Prize is sponsored and supported by the Media Standards Trust, Political Quarterly, AM Heath, Richard Blair, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. 3.     For further information, please visit our website, www.orwellfoundation.com or contact Alex Bartram at alex.bartram@orwellfoundation.com or 0207 848 7930.