Orwell Prize
Encyclopedia
The Orwell Prize used to be regarded as the pre-eminent British prize for political writing.
Three prizes are awarded each year: one for a book, one for journalism
and another for blogging
. 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 Orwell's adopted son Richard Blair, Reuters
, The Political Quarterly
, Blackwell Publishing
, Media Standards Trust
, and A. M. Heath & Company. Crick remained Chair of the judges until 2006. The media historian Professor Jean Seaton
has filled this position since 2007.
In 2008 the winner in the Journalism category was Johann Hari
. In July 2011 the Orwell Prize Council decided to revoke Hari's award and withdraw the prize. Public announcement was delayed as Hari was then under investigation by The Independent for professional misconduct. In September 2011 Hari announced that he was returning his prize "as an act of contrition for the errors I made elsewhere, in my interviews", although he "stands by the articles that won the prize". A few weeks later, the Council of the Orwell Prize confirmed that Hari had returned the plaque but not the £2000 prize money, and issued a statement that one of the articles submitted for the prize, "How multiculturalism is betraying women", published by the Independent in April 2007, "contained inaccuracies and conflated different parts of someone else’s story (specifically, a report in Der Spiegel
)".
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
Three prizes are awarded each year: one for a book, one for journalism
Political journalism
Political journalism is a broad branch of journalism that includes coverage of all aspects of politics and political science, although the term usually refers specifically to coverage of civil governments and political power....
and another for blogging
Political blog
A political blog is a common type of blog that comments on politics. In liberal democracies the right to criticize the government without interference is considered an important element of free speech...
. In each case, the winner is the short-listed entry which comes closest to George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's own ambition to 'make political writing into an art'.
The prize was founded by Bernard Crick
Bernard Crick
Sir Bernard Rowland Crick was a British political theorist and democratic socialist whose views were often summarised as "politics is ethics done in public"...
in 1993 using money from the royalties of the hardback edition of his biography of Orwell. Its sponsors are Orwell's adopted son Richard Blair, Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
, The Political Quarterly
The Political Quarterly
The Political Quarterly is a British political journal founded in 1930 by Leonard Woolf, the husband of Virginia Woolf. It is broadly centre-left in outlook, but has published articles by a wide range of political thinkers including William Beveridge, Samuel Brittan, Ernest Gellner, Richard...
, Blackwell Publishing
Blackwell Publishing
Wiley-Blackwell is the international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons. It was formed by the merger of John Wiley's Global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business with Blackwell Publishing, after Wiley took over Blackwell Publishing in...
, Media Standards Trust
Media Standards Trust
The Media Standards Trust was formed in 2006 to address concerns of a deterioration in journalistic standards at a time when the media were becoming enormously powerful while remaining largely opaque and unaccountable...
, and A. M. Heath & Company. Crick remained Chair of the judges until 2006. The media historian Professor Jean Seaton
Jean Seaton
Jean Seaton is Professor of media history at the University of Westminster.She is the official historian of the BBC, who is continuing Asa Briggs multi-volume account of the Corporation's history with the next volume The BBC Under Siege in preparation. Her other books include Power Without...
has filled this position since 2007.
In 2008 the winner in the Journalism category was Johann Hari
Johann Hari
Johann Hari is an award winning British journalist who has been a columnist at The Independent, the The Huffington Post, and contributed to several other publications. In 2011, Hari was accused of plagiarism; he subsequently was suspended from The Independent and surrendered his 2008 Orwell Prize...
. In July 2011 the Orwell Prize Council decided to revoke Hari's award and withdraw the prize. Public announcement was delayed as Hari was then under investigation by The Independent for professional misconduct. In September 2011 Hari announced that he was returning his prize "as an act of contrition for the errors I made elsewhere, in my interviews", although he "stands by the articles that won the prize". A few weeks later, the Council of the Orwell Prize confirmed that Hari had returned the plaque but not the £2000 prize money, and issued a statement that one of the articles submitted for the prize, "How multiculturalism is betraying women", published by the Independent in April 2007, "contained inaccuracies and conflated different parts of someone else’s story (specifically, a report in Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
)".
Book category
- 1994 Anatol LievenAnatol LievenPeter Paul Anatol Lieven is a British author, journalist, and policy analyst. He is presently a Senior Researcher at the New America Foundation, where he focuses on US global strategy and the War on Terrorism, Associated Scholar of the Transnational Crisis Project, Chair of International...
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 KeaneFergal KeaneFergal Patrick Keane , is an Irish writer and broadcaster. For many years, Keane was the BBC's correspondent in Southern Africa. He is the nephew of Irish author John B. 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. ThomasD. M. ThomasDonald Michael Thomas, known as D. M. Thomas , is a Cornish novelist, poet, and translator.Thomas was born in Redruth, Cornwall, UK. He attended Trewirgie Primary School and Redruth Grammar School before graduating with First Class Honours in English from New College, Oxford in 1959...
Alexander Solzhenitsyn: a Century in His Life - 2000 Brian Cathcart The Case of Stephen Lawrence
- 2001 Michael IgnatieffMichael IgnatieffMichael Grant Ignatieff is a Canadian author, academic and former politician. He was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011...
Virtual War - 2002 Miranda CarterMiranda CarterMiranda Carter is a British writer and biographer. She was educated at St Paul's Girls School and Exeter College, Oxford.Her first book was a biography of the art historian and spy Anthony Blunt, entitled Anthony Blunt: His Lives...
Anthony Blunt: His Lives - 2003 Francis WheenFrancis WheenFrancis James Baird Wheen is a British journalist, writer and broadcaster.-Early life and education:Wheen was born into an army family and educated at two independent schools: Copthorne Preparatory School near Crawley, West Sussex and Harrow School in north west London.-Life and career:Running...
Hoo-hahs and Passing Frenzies: Collected Journalism 1991-2000 - 2004 Robert CooperRobert Cooper (diplomat)Robert Francis Cooper, CMG, MVO is a British diplomat and advisor currently serving as a Counsellor in the European External Action Service...
The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty First Century - 2005 Michael CollinsMichael Collins- Politics :* Michael Collins , Irish Labour party politician, Lord Mayor Of Dublin 1977–1978* Michael Collins , Irish revolutionary leader, soldier, and politician...
The Likes of Us: A Biography of the White Working Class - 2006 Delia Jarrett-Macauley Moses, Citizen and Me
- 2007 Peter HennessyPeter HennessyPeter John Hennessy, Baron Hennessy of Nympsfield, FBA is an English historian of government. Since 1992, he has been Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, University of London.-Early life:...
Having It So Good: Britain in the 1950s - 2008 Raja ShehadehRaja ShehadehRaja Shehadeh is a Palestinian lawyer and writer who lives in Ramallah, West Bank.-Biography:Raja Shehadeh studied law in London. His grandfather, Saleem, was a judge in the courts of the British Mandate of Palestine...
Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape - 2009 Andrew Brown Fishing in Utopia: Sweden and the future that disappeared
- 2010 Andrea Gillies Keeper
- 2011 Tom Bingham The Rule of Law
Journalism category
- 1994 Neal AschersonNeal AschersonCharles Neal Ascherson is a Scottish journalist and writer.- Background :He was born in Edinburgh and educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, where he read history. He was described by the historian Eric Hobsbawm as "perhaps the most brilliant student I ever had...
- 1995 Paul FootPaul FootPaul Mackintosh Foot was a British investigative journalist, political campaigner, author, and long-time member of the Socialist Workers Party...
and Tim Laxton - 1996 Melanie PhillipsMelanie PhillipsMelanie Phillips is a British journalist and author. She began her career on the left of the political spectrum, writing for such publications as The Guardian and New Statesman. In the 1990s she moved to the right, and she now writes for the Daily Mail newspaper, covering political and social...
- 1997 Ian Bell
- 1998 Polly ToynbeePolly ToynbeePolly Toynbee is a British journalist and writer, and has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper since 1998. She is a social democrat and broadly supports the Labour Party, while urging it in many areas to be more left-wing...
- 1999 Robert FiskRobert FiskRobert Fisk is an English writer and journalist from Maidstone, Kent. As Middle East correspondent of The Independent, he has primarily been based in Beirut for more than 30 years. He has published a number of books and has reported on the United States's war in Afghanistan and the same country's...
- 2000 David McKittrickDavid McKittrickDavid McKittrick is a Belfast-born journalist who has reported on Northern Ireland since 1971.-Professional career:McKittrick began his career as a reporter for the East Antrim Times. He joined the Irish Times in 1973 as a reporter in Belfast, becoming Northern editor in 1976 and London editor in...
- 2001 David AaronovitchDavid AaronovitchDavid Aaronovitch is a British author, broadcaster, and journalist. He is a regular columnist for The Times, and author of Paddling to Jerusalem: An Aquatic Tour of Our Small Country and Voodoo Histories: the role of Conspiracy Theory in Modern History...
- 2002 Yasmin Alibhai-BrownYasmin Alibhai-BrownYasmin Alibhai-Brown MBE is a Ugandan-born British journalist and author, who describes herself as a "leftie liberal, anti-racist, feminist, Muslim, part-Pakistani...a very responsible person"...
- 2003 Brian SewellBrian SewellBrian Sewell is an English art critic and media personality. He writes for the London Evening Standard and is noted for artistic conservatism and his acerbic view of the Turner Prize and conceptual art...
- 2004 Vanora Bennett
- 2005 Matthew ParrisMatthew ParrisMatthew Francis Parris is a UK-based journalist and former Conservative politician.-Early life and family:...
- 2006 Timothy Garton AshTimothy Garton AshTimothy Garton Ash is a British historian, author and commentator. He is currently serving as Professor of European Studies at Oxford University. Much of his work has been concerned with the late modern and contemporary history of Central and Eastern Europe...
- 2007 Peter BeaumontPeter Beaumont (journalist)Peter Beaumont is a British journalist writing for The Guardian and The Observer newspapers specialising in foreign affairs. He is the author of The Secret Life of War - journeys through modern conflict. - References :a...
- 2008 Johann HariJohann HariJohann Hari is an award winning British journalist who has been a columnist at The Independent, the The Huffington Post, and contributed to several other publications. In 2011, Hari was accused of plagiarism; he subsequently was suspended from The Independent and surrendered his 2008 Orwell Prize...
(prize revoked in 2011, monetary award not returned ) - 2009 Patrick CockburnPatrick CockburnPatrick Cockburn is an Irish journalist who has been a Middle East correspondent since 1979 for the Financial Times and, presently, The Independent....
- 2010 Peter HitchensPeter HitchensPeter Jonathan Hitchens is an award-winning British columnist and author, noted for his traditionalist conservative stance. He has published five books, including The Abolition of Britain, A Brief History of Crime, The Broken Compass and most recently The Rage Against God. Hitchens writes for...
- 2011 Jenni RussellJenni RussellJenni Russell is a British columnist and broadcaster. She writes the Monday political column for The Evening Standard and also writes regularly for The Sunday Times and The Guardian. She worked for many years at the BBC and ITN, most recently as editor of The World Tonight on BBC Radio 4...
Blog category
- 2009 Richard HortonRichard Horton (blogger)Richard Horton is a detective constable with Lancashire Constabulary, and blogger who lives in Lancashire. He is the author of the Orwell Prize-winning anonymous blog NightJack which commented on his work as a police officer....
: "NightJack– An English Detective" http://nightjack2.wordpress.com/ - 2010 Winston Smith (pseudonym): "Working with the Underclass" http://winstonsmith33.blogspot.com/
- 2011 Graeme Archer: ConservativeHome
Book Prize Shortlist 2008
- Nick CohenNick CohenNick Cohen is a British journalist, author and political commentator. He is currently a columnist for The Observer, a blogger for The Spectator and TV critic for Standpoint magazine. He formerly wrote for the London Evening Standard and the New Statesman...
What's Left? - Jay GriffithsJay GriffithsJay Griffiths is an award-winning British writer and author of Wild: An Elemental Journey, Pip Pip: A Sideways Look at Time, Anarchipelago and A Love Letter from a Stray Moon.Biography=...
Wild - William HagueWilliam HagueWilliam Jefferson Hague is the British Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He served as Leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001...
William Wilberforce - Ed HusainEd HusainMohammed Mahbub Husain is the author of The Islamist, a book about Islamic fundamentalism, and an account of his five years as an Islamist activist. Husain also helped to create, with Maajid Nawaz, the counter-extremism organisation the Quilliam Foundation. He is currently at senior fellow at the...
The Islamist - Marina LewyckaMarina LewyckaMarina Lewycka is a British novelist of Ukrainian origin, currently living in Sheffield, England.-Biography:Marina Lewycka was born in a refugee camp in Kiel, Germany after World War II. Her family subsequently moved to England where she now lives...
Two Caravans - Raja ShehadehRaja ShehadehRaja Shehadeh is a Palestinian lawyer and writer who lives in Ramallah, West Bank.-Biography:Raja Shehadeh studied law in London. His grandfather, Saleem, was a judge in the courts of the British Mandate of Palestine...
Palestinian Walks - Clive Stafford SmithClive Stafford SmithClive Adrian Stafford Smith OBE is a British [see talk] lawyer who specialises in the areas of civil rights and the death penalty in the United States of America....
Bad Men
Journalism Prize Shortlist 2008
- Johann HariJohann HariJohann Hari is an award winning British journalist who has been a columnist at The Independent, the The Huffington Post, and contributed to several other publications. In 2011, Hari was accused of plagiarism; he subsequently was suspended from The Independent and surrendered his 2008 Orwell Prize...
The Independent - Clive JamesClive JamesClive James, AM is an Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet and memoirist, best known for his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs, for his chat shows and documentaries on British television and for his prolific journalism...
BBC Radio 4 - Anton La Guardia The Economist
- Andrew RawnsleyAndrew RawnsleyAndrew Nicholas James Rawnsley is a British political journalist, notably for The Observer, and broadcaster.-Early life:...
The Observer - Mary Riddell The Observer
- Paul VallelyPaul VallelyPaul Vallely CMG is a leading British writer on Africa and development issues. He first coined, in his seminal 1990 book Bad Samaritans: First World Ethics and Third World Debt, the expression that campaigners needed to move "from charity to justice" – a slogan that was taken up by Jubilee 2000 and...
The Independent
Book Prize Shortlist 2009
- Andrew Brown – Fishing in Utopia: Sweden & The Future That Disappeared
- Tony JudtTony JudtTony Robert Judt FBA was a British historian, essayist, and university professor who specialized in European history. Judt moved to New York and served as the Erich Maria Remarque Professor in European Studies at New York University, and Director of NYU's Erich Maria Remarque Institute...
– Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century - Owen Matthews – Stalin's Children: Three Generations of Love and War
- Hsiao-Hung PaiHsiao-Hung PaiHsiao-Hung Pai is a writer on migrant labour issues best known for her book Chinese Whispers: The True Story Behind Britain's Hidden Army of Labour which was short-listed for the 2009 Orwell Prize....
– Chinese Whispers: The True Story Behind Britain's Hidden Army of LabourChinese Whispers: The True Story Behind Britain's Hidden Army of LabourChinese Whispers: The True Story Behind Britain's Hidden Army of Labour is a non-fiction book by United Kingdom-based Taiwanese author Hsiao-Hung Pai, first published in 2008.... - Ahmed RashidAhmed RashidAhmed Rashid is a former Pakistani revolutionary, a journalist and best-selling author of several books about Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia.-Biography:...
– Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia - Mark ThompsonMark ThompsonMark John Thompson is Director-General of the BBC, a post he has held since 2004, and a former chief executive of Channel 4...
– The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1918
Book Prize Shortlist 2010
- Christopher de BellaigueChristopher de BellaigueChristopher de Bellaigue is a journalist who has worked on the Middle East and South Asia since 1994. His work mostly chronicles developments in Iran and Turkey....
– Rebel Land: Among Turkey's Forgotten Peoples - Petina GappahPetina GappahPetina Gappah, born 1971, is a Zimbabwean writer. She writes in English, though she also draws on Shona, her first language.Gappah's first book, An Elegy for Easterly, a story collection, was shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the richest prize for the short story...
– An Elegy for Easterly - Andrea Gillies – Keeper
- John KampfnerJohn KampfnerJohn Paul Kampfner is a British journalist who was editor of the weekly political magazine the New Statesman between 2005 and 2008...
– Freedom For Sale: How We Made Money and Lost Our Liberty - Kenan MalikKenan MalikKenan Malik is an Indian-born English writer, lecturer and broadcaster, trained in neurobiology and the history of science. As a scientific author, his focus is on the philosophy of biology, and contemporary theories of multiculturalism, pluralism and race...
– From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and Its Legacy - Michela WrongMichela WrongMichela Wrong is a British journalist and author who spent six years as a foreign correspondent covering events across the African continent for Reuters, the BBC, and the Financial Times. Her debut book, In the Footsteps of Mr...
– It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle Blower
Blog Prize Shortlist 2010
- Hopi Sen - "Hopi Sen" http://hopisen.wordpress.com/
- David Allen GreenDavid Allen GreenDavid Allen Green is an English lawyer and writer. He is also legal correspondent for the New Statesman; and blogs as "Jack of Kent"....
- "Jack of Kent: A liberal and critical blog mainly about the misuse and misrepresentation of law" http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/ - Laurie PennyLaurie PennyLaurie Penny is a British columnist, blogger and author.-Early life and education:Penny was born in London and grew up in Brighton. She attended Brighton College. She has written about her hospitalisation at seventeen for anorexia and subsequent recovery.She studied English at Wadham College,...
– "Penny Red" and others http://pennyred.blogspot.com/ - Madam Miaow (pseudonym) - "Madam Miaow says: Of culture, pop-culture and petri dishes" http://madammiaow.blogspot.com/
- Tim MarshallTim MarshallTim Marshall , born in 1959, is Foreign Affairs Editor for Sky News). He has reported from Europe, the USA and Asia. Having served in the RAF prior to his journalistic career, he has reported from a number of war zones...
- "Foreign Matters" http://blogs.news.sky.com/foreignmatters - Winston Smith (pseudonym): "Working with the Underclass" http://winstonsmith33.blogspot.com/
Book Prize Shortlist 2011
- Tom Bingham - The Rule of Law (Allen Lane)
- Oliver Bullough - Let Our Fame Be Great: Journeys Among the Defiant People of the Caucasus (Penguin)
- Helen DunmoreHelen DunmoreHelen Dunmore is a British poet, novelist and children's writer. Educated at the University of York, she now lives in Bristol....
- The Betrayal (Fig Tree) - Christopher HitchensChristopher HitchensChristopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
- Hitch-22 (Atlantic Books) - Afsaneh Moqadam - Death to the Dictator! (The Bodley Head)
- D. R. ThorpeD. R. ThorpeD. R. Thorpe is an historian and biographer who has written biographies of three British Prime Ministers of the mid 20th century, Sir Anthony Eden, Sir Alec Douglas-Home and Harold Macmillan.-Education and academic career:...
- Supermac: The Life of Harold MacMillan (Chatto & Windus)
Special awards
In 2007, BBC's NewsnightNewsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....
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
Clive James
Clive James, AM is an Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet and memoirist, best known for his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs, for his chat shows and documentaries on British television and for his prolific journalism...
was given a special award. In 2009, Tony Judt
Tony Judt
Tony Robert Judt FBA was a British historian, essayist, and university professor who specialized in European history. Judt moved to New York and served as the Erich Maria Remarque Professor in European Studies at New York University, and Director of NYU's Erich Maria Remarque Institute...
was given a lifetime achievement award