The Samuel Johnson Prize is one of the wrold's most pretigious awards for non-fiction writing. It was founded in 1999 based on an anonymous donation and is managed by BBC 4. Each winner receives 30000 pounds and each finalist 2500 pounds.

Past Winners:

2003

Winner:

  • T.J. Binyon Pushkin

Shortlist:
  • Orlando Figes, Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia
  • Aminatta Forna, The Devil that Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Memoir of her Father, her Family, her Country and a Continent
  • Olivia Judson, Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation
  • Claire Tomalin, Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self *Edgar Vincent, Nelson: Love and Fame

2002

Winner

  • Margaret Macmillan, Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War

Shortlist
  • Eamon Duffy, The Voices of Morebath
  • William Fiennes, The Snow Geese
  • Richard Hamblyn, The Invention of Clouds: How an Amateur Meteorologist Forged the Language of the Skies
  • Roy Jenkins, Churchill: a Biography
  • Brendan Simms, Unfinest Hour: Britain and the Destruction of Bosnia

2001

Winner

  • Michael Burleigh, The Third Reich

Shortlist
  • Richard Fortey, Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution
  • Catherine Merridale, Night of Stone
  • Graham Robb, Rimbaud
  • Simon Sebag Montefiore, Prince of Princes: The Life of Potemkin
  • Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes

2000

Winner

Shortlist 1999

Winner

Shortlist
  • Ian Kershaw, Hitler
  • Ann Wroe, Pilate
  • John Diamond, C: Because Cowards Get Cancer Too
  • Richard Holmes, Coleridge: Darker Reflections
  • David Landes, Wealth and Poverty of Nations