The Orwell Prize is regarded as the pre-eminent British prize for political writing. Every year, two prizes are awarded: one for a book, and the other for political journalism. In each case, the winner is the short-listed entry which comes closest to George Orwell's own ambition to 'make political writing into an art'.

The prize was founded by Bernard Crick in 1993, using money from the royalties of the hardback edition of his biography of Orwell. Its sponsors are Richard Blair, the adopted son of Orwell, Reuters, The Political Quarterly, Blackwell Publishing, Media Standards Trust, and A. M. Heath & Company.^[1]

[edit] List of winners

[edit] Book category

• 1994 Anatol Lieven The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to Independence
• 1995 Fionnuala O'Connor In Search of a State: Catholics in Northern Ireland
• 1996 Fergal Keane Season of Blood: A Rwandan Journey
• 1997 Peter Godwin Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa
• 1998 Patricia Hollis Jennie Lee: A Life
• 1999 D. M. Thomas Alexander Solzhenitsyn: a Century in His Life
• 2000 Brian Cathcart The Case of Stephen Lawrence
• 2001 Michael Ignatieff Virtual War
• 2002 Miranda Carter Anthony Blunt: His Lives
• 2003 Francis Wheen Hoo-hahs and Passing Frenzies: Collected Journalism 1991-2000
• 2004 Robert Cooper The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty First Century
• 2005 Michael Collins The Likes of Us: A Biography of the White Working Class
• 2006 Delia Jarrett-Macauley Moses, Citizen and Me
• 2007 Peter Hennessy Having It So Good: Britain in the 1950s
• 2008 Raja Shehadeh Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape
• 2009 Andrew Brown Fishing in Utopia: Sweden and the future that disappeared

[edit] Journalism category

• 1994 Neal Ascherson
• 1995 Paul Foot and Tim Laxton
• 1996 Melanie Phillips
• 1997 Ian Bell
• 1998 Polly Toynbee
• 1999 Robert Fisk
• 2000 David McKittrick
• 2001 David Aaronovitch
• 2002 Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
• 2003 Brian Sewell
• 2004 Vanora Bennett
• 2005 Matthew Parris
• 2006 Timothy Garton Ash
• 2007 Peter Beaumont
• 2008 Johann Hari
• 2009 Patrick Cockburn

[edit] Book Prize Shortlist 2008

• Nick Cohen What's Left?
• Jay Griffiths Wild
• William Hague William Wilberforce
• Ed Husain The Islamist
• Marina Lewycka Two Caravans
• Raja Shehadeh Palestinian Walks
• Clive Stafford Smith Bad Men

[edit] Journalism Prize Shortlist 2008

• Johann Hari The Independent
• Clive James BBC Radio 4
• Anton La Guardia The Economist
• Andrew Rawnsley The Observer
• Mary Riddell The Observer
• Paul Vallely The Independent

[edit] Book Prize Shortlist 2009

• Andrew Brown – Fishing in Utopia: Sweden & The Future That Disappeared
• Tony Judt – Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century
• Owen Matthews – Stalin's Children: Three Generations of Love and War
• Hsiao-Hung Pai – Chinese Whispers: The True Story Behind Britain's Hidden Army of Labour
• Ahmed Rashid – Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia
• Mark Thompson – The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1918

[edit] Special awards

In 2007, BBC's Newsnight programme was given a special award, the judges noting: "When we were discussing the many very fine pieces of journalism that were submitted Newsnight just spontaneously emerged in our deliberations as the most precious and authoritative home for proper reporting of important stories, beautifully and intelligently crafted by journalists of rare distinction." In 2008, Clive James was given a special award. In 2009, Tony Judt was given a lifetime achievement award

[edit] Sources

• The Orwell Prize - Official Site
• Media Guardian - Orwell Prize Shortlist 2008
• [1]

[edit] References

v • d • e Works of George Orwell Novels Burmese Days (1934) · A Clergyman's Daughter (1935) · Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936) · Coming Up for Air (1939) · Animal Farm (1945) · Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) Nonfiction Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) · The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) · Homage to Catalonia (1938) Essays "A Hanging" (1931) · "The Spike" (1931) · "Bookshop Memories" (1936) · "Shooting an Elephant" (1936) · "Boys' Weeklies" (1940) · "Inside the Whale" (1940) · "My Country Right or Left" (1940) · "England Your England" (1941) · "The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius" (1941) · "Poetry and the Microphone" (1943) · "Notes on Nationalism" (1945) · "Books v. Cigarettes" (1946) · "Confessions of a Book Reviewer" (1946) · "Decline of the English Murder" (1946) · "A Good Word for the Vicar of Bray" (1946) · "How the Poor Die" (1946) · "The Moon Under Water" (1946) · "A Nice Cup of Tea" (1946) · "Pleasure Spots" (1946) · "Politics and the English Language" (1946) · "The Politics of Starvation" (1946) · "Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels" (1946) · "The Prevention of Literature" (1946) · "Riding Down from Bangor" (1946) · Second Thoughts on James Burnham (1946) · "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad" (1946) · "Why I Write" (1946) · "Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool" (1947) · "Such, Such Were the Joys" (1947) Related articles "As I Please" · "London Letters" · Betrayal of the Left · Inside the Whale and Other Essays · Searchlight Books · Secker and Warburg · Victor Gollancz Ltd · Eileen O'Shaughnessy · Sonia Brownell · Orwell's list · Eric & Us · Why Orwell Matters · Orwell Award · Orwell Prize · Orwellian Texts · Quotes · Images