Shortlist announced for the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize
The shortlisted books have been announced for the 2024 Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize: a prize for the best non-fiction books published in the UK during 2023. The Duff Cooper Prize was set up in 1956, in memory of New College Old Member, Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, GCMG, DSO (1890 – 1954).
The judges, Artemis Cooper (Duff's great granddaughter), Miles Young (Warden of New College) and historians Susan Brigden, David Horspool and Minoo Dinshaw have chosen the following:
- Revolutionary Spring: Fighting for a New World, 1848 - 1849
Christopher Clark (Allen Lane) - The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748 - 1789
Robert Darnton (Allen Lane) - Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire
Nandini Das (Bloomsbury) - France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain
Julian Jackson (Allen Lane) - Monet: The Restless Vision
Jackie Wullschläger (Allen Lane)
Artemis Cooper, chair of the jury, says:
"This year’s shortlist features five books that combine compelling narrative with imaginative insight. Each is ambitious, delighting in the textures of the past - songs and shipping bills, law reports and love notes – while offering intellectual rigour. As a jury, we feel these are future classics, stimulants to thought, conversation and omnivorous curiosity."
The winner will be announced on 4 March 2024.
New College is the home of the Duff Cooper Memorial Fund. Generously supported by Pol Roger, the Duff Cooper Memorial Fund is the the charity responsible for the £5,000 Prize. Duff Cooper read History at New College between 1908 and 1911, and benefited from its culture of tolerance, its remarkable library, and the wide learning of its tutors.
