The British Academy Book Prize 2025: explore the shortlist

Professor Rebecca Earle FBA

The Chair of the judging panel explores this year’s shortlist ahead of the winner being announced on 22 October. 

The British Academy Book Prize rewards and celebrates writing grounded in high-quality research – works of non-fiction that will inspire readers to deepen their understanding of people, society and cultures across time and place.

1. What topics do this year’s shortlisted books cover?

The 2025 shortlist is a really nice list – I’m pleased with what we’ve come up with this year. We have books that cover a wide range of different topics, from challenging but important reads to surprising explorations of our musical past. There are books which explore the fundamental role that India played in shaping the ancient world; books that help us understand today’s close relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian state, and more. It’s a diverse and extremely relevant shortlist.

2. How did the judges decide this year’s shortlist?

It was challenging. Hundreds of books of all sorts of topics were submitted. Whittling them down to six was a task that we tackled partly by paying attention to the different sorts of scholarship that underpinned different submissions, and which we might want to recognise. We also considered whether the books connected to topics we thought were important – always with an eye to readability and making sure that the scholarship was robust.

Those were also concerns that we took into account when we selected the final winner. We ascribed considerable importance to the approachability of the book and the ease with which a non-specialist reader might be able to understand the topic. We paid attention to the way in which the book might speak to concerns that readers would have about the world around them, while at the same time awakening new interests and raising questions readers might never have considered.

3. What do you think makes the British Academy Book Prize distinct? 

The British Academy Book Prize tries to draw together works of scholarship in the humanities and social sciences that are important, relevant, and grounded in excellent research. We take particular pride in trying to select books that are scholarly yet also approachable and readable, as well as those which speak to the interests of today’s readers.

4. Why is non-fiction important?

All sorts of writing are important. Non-fiction, which is the brief for this prize, is important for a number of reasons. It helps us understand the world around us. In fact, other types of writing often rely on the excellent research done by scholars from the humanities and social sciences. Historical fiction indeed regularly draws on our research at the same time as it animates in distinctive ways. The works of non-fiction celebrated by the British Academy Book Prize offer challenging and novel ways to think about the nature of the world around us.

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