Books by Lucy Hughes-Hallett
Lucy Hughes-Hallett, the chair of the 2021 International Booker Prize judging panel, is a cultural historian and novelist. Her book on Gabriele d’Annunzio, The Pike, won the 2013 Samuel Johnson Prize, the Duff Cooper Prize, The Costa Biography of the Year Ward and the Political Book Awards Biography of the Year. It was also picked by The Sunday Times as ‘the biography of the decade’. She has also written the cultural histories Cleopatra and Heroes, and the novel Peculiar Ground. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Honorary Fellow of the Historical Association.
The Pike: Gabriele d’Annunzio, Poet, Seducer and Preacher of War
by Lucy Hughes-Hallett
Lucy Hughes-Hallett's biography of Gabriele D’Annunzio—the story of the Italian poet and aristocrat's "evolution from idealist Romantic to radical right-wing revolutionary"—offers an insight into the cultish elements of nationalism, the origins of extremism, and the dangers of huge personal charisma. It was declared the 'biography of the decade' by The Times, and won both the Costa biography prize and the Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction (now known as the Baillie Gifford Prize, the UK's most prestigious prize for nonfiction) in 2013.
Interviews with Lucy Hughes-Hallett
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1
At Night All Blood Is Black
by David Diop, translated by Anna Moschovakis -
2
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories
by Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell -
3
When We Cease to Understand the World
by Benjamin Labatut, translated by Adrian Nathan West -
4
The Employees: A workplace novel of the 22nd century
by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken -
5
In Memory of Memory
by Maria Stepanova, by Sasha Dugdale -
6
The War of the Poor
by Éric Vuillard, translated by Mark Polizzotti
The Best of World Literature: The 2021 International Booker Prize Shortlist, recommended by Lucy Hughes-Hallett
The Best of World Literature: The 2021 International Booker Prize Shortlist, recommended by Lucy Hughes-Hallett
Every year the International Booker Prize judges read dozens of novels from around the world, which are newly translated into English. Here Lucy Hughes-Hallett—award-winning author and chair of this year’s judging panel—talks us through the six books that made their 2021 shortlist of the best world literature.
Interviews where books by Lucy Hughes-Hallett were recommended
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1
Question 7
by Richard Flanagan -
2
Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World
by John Vaillant -
3
Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne
by Katherine Rundell -
4
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
by Patrick Radden Keefe -
5
One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time
by Craig Brown -
6
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
by Hallie Rubenhold
Baillie Gifford Prize-Winning Nonfiction Books
Baillie Gifford Prize-Winning Nonfiction Books
It's a prize that has been awarded annually since 1999 to a book that speaks to an important issue but is also highly readable. Below you'll find all the winners of the Baillie Gifford Prize, the UK's most prestigious non-fiction book award—from a gripping account of a turning point in World War II to a terrifying forest fire in an oil town in Canada.
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1
Italy Reborn: From Fascism to Democracy
by Mark Gilbert -
2
Catland: Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World
by Kathryn Hughes -
3
The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham
by Lucy Hughes-Hallett -
4
Forbidden Desire in Early Modern Europe: Male-Male Sexual Relations, 1400-1750
by Noel Malcolm -
5
Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin
by Sue Prideaux -
6
Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin, and the Battle Between Science and Religion
by Michael Taylor
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 Duff Cooper Prize, recommended by Minoo Dinshaw
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 Duff Cooper Prize, recommended by Minoo Dinshaw
It’s a nonfiction book prize that values “style, rigour, argument, meatiness, readability, freshness, oddity and individuality,” says Minoo Dinshaw, author of Friends in Youth and one of this year’s judges. He introduces the six brilliant books that made the shortlist of this year’s Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize, from the history of post-World War II Italy to the disputes caused by the discovery of dinosaur fossils.
