Samuel Johnson prize longlist

This year’s Samuel Johnson Prize longlist, announced this morning, offers a solid selection of history and biography, but little variety compared to the admirably eclecticlists of previous years. For sheer quality of prose, for instance, it’s a shame that James Wood’s wonderful essay collection The Fun Stuff was not recognised (essay collections, regrettably, tend to be overlooked, although they are eligible). I was also hoping that Evil Men— James Dawes’s strange mixture of journalism and intellectual history, in which interviews with Japanese war criminals are interspersed with a philosophical investigation into the nature of evil—might sneak its way in. But, of course, there is no such thing as a comprehensive list of this sort, and there is enough quality among this year’s selections to make for a strong shortlist.

Among the books selected, a number have been covered in Prospect over the past year. Certainly the biggest book on the list, in terms of hype, heft and popularity, is Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography by Charles Moore. In his review in June, David Frum added to the chorus of praise, stating that the book “will be for generations the definitive study of Thatcher’s life and career.”

Jonathan Coe was equally enthusiastic about Modernity Britain: Opening the Box, the latest installment in David Kynaston’s epic postwar history of Britain. If this series succeeds in its aim of showing “exactly what the postwar governments struggled to build, and which Thatcher, just as determinedly, sought to dismantle,” wrote Coe, “then it will surely come to be seen not just as one of the present era’s most important histories, but as one of its most illuminating works of literature.”

It’s been a boom year for political biographies, with two more (in addition to Charles Moore’s book) making the longlist. In the current issue of Prospect, Jesse Norman praised Disraeli or The Two Lives, the “highly absorbing” new biography by Douglas Hurd & Edward Young. Norman’s own political biography, Edmund Burke: Philosopher, Politician, Prophet, also appears on the longlist. In an article that was highly critical of Burke himself, AC Grayling described Norman’s book as “engaging attempt to show how the intellectual debates of the 18th century can be deployed in today’s politics.”

Michael Burleigh is no stranger to the Samuel Johnson prize, having won in 2001. This year he is nominated for Small Wars, Far Away Places, a global survey of the two decades following the end of World War Two. Despite some reservations, Rose Jacobs praised Burleigh’s willingness to “acknowledge the cruelty and foibles of western presidents and prime ministers—on the left and right—as he is those of Stalin, Mao or any number of politicians and soldiers trying to throw off their colonial rulers.”

Andrew Solomon’s Far From the Tree, a study of parents dealing with children who are different in some way (dealing with deafness, for instance, or exceptionally high IQ), earned him a place on our World Thinkers of 2013 list. For a taste of Solomon’s writing, check out his controversial essay in defence of psychiatry, which appeared in the July issue of Prospect.

Two more books on the longlist will be covered in the next issue of Prospect (on sale from 19^th September). Look out for Robert Alter’s review of The Story of the Jews by Simon Schama and Bronwen Maddox’s review of The War That Ended Peace by Margaret MacMillan.

Part of the fun of the winnowing process from longlist to shortlist (30 September) to eventual winner (4 November) is guessing what might win. Here is my highly unscientific prediction of the six books that will make the final cut:

Empires of the Dead: How One Man's Vision Led to the Creation of WW1's War Graves, David Crane (William Collins)

Return of a King, William Dalrymple (Bloomsbury)

Under Another Sky, Charlotte Higgins (Jonathan Cape)

Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, Charles Moore (Allen Lane)

Far From The Tree, Andrew Solomon (Chatto & Windus)

The Pike, Lucy Hughes-Hallett (4^th Estate)

I predict the winner will be Andrew Solomon’s Far From The Tree.