Shortlist announced for the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize
The shortlisted books have been announced for the 2024 : a prize for the best non-fiction books published in the UK during 2023. The Duff Cooper Prize was set up in 1956, in memory of ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Old Member, Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, GCMG, DSO (1890 – 1954).
The judges, Artemis Cooper (Duff's great granddaughter), Miles Young (Warden of ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ) and historians Susan Brigden, David Horspool and Minoo Dinshaw have chosen the following:
- Revolutionary Spring: Fighting for a New World, 1848 - 1849
Christopher Clark (Allen Lane) - The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748 - 1789
Robert Darnton (Allen Lane) - Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire
Nandini Das (Bloomsbury) - France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain
Julian Jackson (Allen Lane) - Monet: The Restless Vision
Jackie Wullschläger (Allen Lane)
Artemis Cooper, chair of the jury, says:
"This year’s shortlist features five books that combine compelling narrative with imaginative insight. Each is ambitious, delighting in the textures of the past - songs and shipping bills, law reports and love notes – while offering intellectual rigour. As a jury, we feel these are future classics, stimulants to thought, conversation and omnivorous curiosity."
The winner will be announced on 4 March 2024.
²ÝÁñÊÓƵ is the home of the Duff Cooper Memorial Fund. Generously supported by , the Duff Cooper Memorial Fund is the the charity responsible for the £5,000 Prize. Duff Cooper read History at ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ between 1908 and 1911, and benefited from its culture of tolerance, its remarkable library, and the wide learning of its tutors.
