Duff Cooper Prize winner announced!

Anna Keay wins Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize for The Restless Republic, Britain Without a Crown

The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize for the best non-fiction work published in the UK in 2022 is awarded to Anna Keay for The Restless Republic: Britain without a Crown, published by William Collins. 

The book, described by the judges as a 'compelling and immensely readable' depiction of Britain's national experiment with republicanism between 1649 and 1660, breathes life into a decade too often overlooked. 

In tracing the fortunes of nine disparate individuals who made their names during the interregnum, Keay reminds readers that the Cromwell era was characterised by an intense awareness of flux, not just in the relations between state and church, army and parliament, but also within families and households. 

Keay, who is both a historian and the Director of the Landmark Trust, is particularly alive to the geographical and psychological distances between the contested centre of power in London, and the further flung corners of the newly kingless Britain: Ireland, Cornwall, Norfolk, the Isle of Man and Berwick. 

'Anna Keay writes with a clear grasp of the political conundrums of the times; what makes The Restless Republic so compelling are the stories of the men and women who lived through them. People like the agile turncoat Marchamont Nedham, editor of Mercurius Politicus, who created popular propaganda for the Commonwealth; or the formidable Countess of Derby, who held one of the last royalist redoubts in Isle of Man; or Gerrard Winstanley's Levellers, who tried to grow food on common land in Weybridge and Cobham - an idea too radical to gain much support among the landowners of Surrey. 

Packed with entertaining and illuminating insights, this is an immensely readable book about a little-known period. I will never look at the interregnum in the same way again since learning that Christmas in Norfolk, with wine, mince-pies and music, was celebrated without fail, in spite of all the edicts from London.'

- Artemis Cooper, Chair of the judging panel

The cover of The Restless Republic on a red background, with details of the prize win


The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize

The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize celebrates the best in non-fiction writing. The first award was made in 1956, and it has been given annually ever since. The winner receives £5,000, a magnum of Pol Roger champagne and a copy of Old Men Forget, Duff Cooper's autobiography. 

The prize is generously supported by Pol Roger. It is run by the Duff Cooper Memorial Fund - a charity based at New College, Oxford. Duff Cooper read History at New College between 1908 and 1911, and benefitted from its culture of tolerance, its remarkable library, and the wide learning of its tutors. 

The judges are Artemis Cooper; Miles Young, Warden of New College, Oxford; Mark Amory; Susan Brigden; and David Horspool. 

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