British Academy Book Prize 2024 shortlist announced

Today, Tuesday 10 September, the British Academy reveals the shortlist for the 2024 British Academy Book Prize.

Now in its 12th year, the international book prize, worth £25,000, rewards and celebrates ground-breaking works of non-fiction that have made an outstanding contribution to the public understanding of world cultures and their interactions, and are grounded in rigorous and high-quality research.

This year’s British Academy Book Prize judges have chosen a shortlist of six exceptional books from a record-breaking number of submissions. They are:

• Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future by Ed Conway (WH Allen / Ebury Publishing / Penguin Random House)
• Smoke and Ashes: Opium's Hidden Histories by Amitav Ghosh (John Murray / HarperCollins India)
• The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Global History of Mathematics & Its Unsung Trailblazers by Kate Kitagawa and Timothy Revell (Viking / Penguin Random House)
• The Tame and the Wild: People and Animals after 1492 by Marcy Norton (Harvard University Press)
• Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues by Ross Perlin (Grove Press UK)
• Divided: Racism, Medicine and Why We Need to Decolonise Healthcare by Annabel Sowemimo (Profile Books / Wellcome Collection)

Chair of judges Professor Charles Tripp, Fellow of the British Academy comments:

“This year’s exceptional shortlist highlights a wide range of topics: the secret world of raw materials; race and the healthcare system; endangered languages; a global history of the opium trade; the origins of mathematics and its unsung trailblazers; and relationships between humans and animals in the context of colonisation. We were greatly impressed by the quality of writing and the depth of research but also by the lengths our writers are prepared to go to highlight urgent global issues and to honour those who have made a difference. At a time when it feels as if global cultural understanding is somewhat lacking, we hope the British Academy Book Prize and these six books will play a part in changing the way we perceive our shared world."

Overview of the shortlist

In Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future, Ed Conway, the Economics and Data Editor of Sky News, travels the globe to uncover the secret world of sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium – the raw materials that have shaped the modern world. In his richly researched, perception-changing and compelling narrative, Conway invites the reader to consider the importance of these resources in the shaping of our geopolitical future.

In Smoke and Ashes: Opium's Hidden Histories, Amitav Ghosh draws on decades of archival research for his Ibis Trilogy novels to trace the economic and cultural impact of the global opium trade from the 18th century to the present-day opium crisis and the Oxycontin scandal in the USA. Ghosh, who was born in India and now lives in the USA, deploys his storytelling skills to bring to life this highly readable travelogue, memoir and history.

In The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Global History of Mathematics and Its Unsung Trailblazers, USA-based writers Kate Kitagawa and Timothy Revell introduce the reader to the truly global story of mathematics, from its beginnings to the present day. This comprehensive and entertaining retelling of the evolution of maths draws on Kitagawa’s expertise as a mathematical historian and Revell’s experience as a journalist. Crucially, it shines a light on the revolutionaries in the field who have been erased from history because of their race, gender or nationality.

Untold stories are further highlighted in Divided: Racism, Medicine and Why We Need to Decolonise Healthcare. In her meticulously researched exploration of health inequalities, (which began life as a column for gal-dem, the influential platform for writers of colour,) the activist, doctor and writer Annabel Sowemimo, reinserts the stories of Black and Indigenous scientists and doctors into the historical narrative. Drawing on conversations with healthcare professionals, activists, academics and her own experiences, Sowemimo makes the urgent case for change and the decolonisation of modern medicine. This is her first book.

The linguistic diversity of New York City is explored in Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues by Ross Perlin, a linguist and co-director of the Endangered Languages Alliance. In this engrossing social history, Perlin, a resident of New York City, follows the stories of six remarkable speakers of endangered languages in order to fully understand the lengths their communities will go to keep the languages alive.

Completing the shortlist is The Tame and the Wild: People and Animals after 1492 in which Marcy Norton, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, offers a fresh perspective on the important roles played by animals in the history of the colonisation of the Americas. In her exceptionally well-researched book, Norton shows how, after 1492, Indigenous and European ways of relating to animals transformed societies on both sides of the Atlantic.

Two of the books on the shortlist come from independent publishers: Profile Books and Grove Press UK. Penguin Random House has two books from imprints WH Allen and Viking, while HarperCollins India / John Murray Press and Harvard University Press each have one book on the list.

2024 judging panel

Professor Charles Tripp FBA (Chair) is joined on the 2024 judging panel by Professor Rebecca Earle FBA, food historian and Professor of History at the University of Warwick; the former BBC foreign correspondent Bridget Kendall Hon FBA; journalist and broadcaster Ritula Shah; and Professor Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad FBA, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Religion and Philosophy at Lancaster University.

Shortlist event and winner announcement

Ahead of the winner announcement, the 2024 shortlisted writers will be brought together for a special event on Monday 21 October at the British Academy, in partnership with the London Review Bookshop, and chaired by the award-winning journalist Rosie Goldsmith.

The winner of the £25,000 prize will be announced at an award ceremony on Tuesday 22 October. Each of the shortlisted writers will receive £1,000. Both events will be livestreamed.

Last year's winner and impact

The winner in 2023 was Nandini Das for Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire. After winning the Prize, her publisher Bloomsbury reported an impressive global reception, particularly in India, where it ranked #30 in all books on Amazon and #1 in three categories: International Relations and Globalisation; World History; and Arts Film and Photography.

A digital exhibition of photographs by Kolkata-based artist, curator and educator Arko Datto, specially commissioned to creatively respond to Courting India, will be shown at the British Academy on Sunday 15 September, as part of Open House Festival.

Above: Suvali Beach in Surat where the historic Battle of Suvally was decisively won by the British against the Portuguese ships. This allowed the British to open their first factory in India thus paving the way for the eventual colonisation of the Indian sub-continent. © Arko Datto

Enquiries

For media enquiries, images or to request interviews with Professor Charles Tripp FBA and the shortlisted authors, please contact:

Jane Acton: [email protected] / 07971 661576