Books by Richard Flanagan

Among the many horrors of World War II was the construction of the Burma–Thailand Railway, where tens of thousands of prisoners dropped dead of illness, exhaustion, and malnutrition, and once strong young men were reduced to skeletal frames of flesh. Jacqueline Passman, daughter of a British prisoner of war, talks to us about the experiences of her father, Harry Silman, a doctor with the British Army who was there and kept a diary, now published for the first time.

Those who love historical fiction have plenty of choice among the list of past Booker Prize-winning novels. We asked Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn to put together an overview of the Booker’s past victors that will sweep you from Tudor England to 20th-century India by way of the 19th-century Australian outback.

The dramatic events and scope of World War 2 make it one of the most popular settings for historical fiction. The range of books varies widely, from real-life stories written up as novels, to entirely fictional accounts which use one or more of the many horrific events of World War II as backdrop.

As we know that many of our readers like to work their way through the list of Booker-winners, we’ve compiled an overview the winning titles from the last two decades.

New memoirs continue to come out hard and fast, testimony to our enduring interest in hearing people tell the stories of their own lives. So far in 2025, these have included candid tales told in painful detail by talented writers, as well as books that combine personal history with other objectives—such as, for example, saving the internet.  

Whether you fancy a quality sports autobiography or an artfully-illustrated graphic narrative, we’ve got suggestions for you. Here, we’ve put together a concise round-up of the award-winning memoirs of 2024 to help you find highly-acclaimed new books you might otherwise have missed.

The nonfiction book prizes we cover at Five Books are a great way to keep up with books on important subjects that are written in an accessible and engaging way. We keep an eye on prizes in a range of nonfiction genres—including history, politics, business, science, sports and general nonfiction.

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.

From nuclear war to a heartbreaking medical story, from the memoirs of novelists and the life of an artist to the struggle for independence in Indonesia, British journalist Isabel Hilton introduces the six books that made the shortlist of the UK’s most prestigious nonfiction prize.