Tim Bouverie wins 2026 Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize for Allies At War: The Politics of Defeating Hitler
The 2026 Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize has been awarded to Tim Bouverie for Allies At War: The Politics of Defeating Hitler published by Bodley Head.
The Prize, set up in memory of the statesman and author Alfred Duff Cooper, celebrates the best non-fiction published in the United Kingdom.
Allies At War is a fast-paced narrative which captures the tensions, the arguments, the lies and the squabbles that underlay the network of alliances against Hitler. Artemis Cooper, chair of judges, says: ‘Allies at War is a vast and far-ranging story, told with an energy and a clarity of thought that establishes Tim Bouverie as one of our most brilliant young historians.’
Fellow judge (and former Sunday Times Literary Editor) Andrew Holgate added: ‘What makes the book so special are the contemporary resonances that ring out on every page. We watch Churchill as he manoeuvres his way through the conflict, trying to inveigle the Americans into the war, then trying to control Roosevelt and Stalin, and we cannot help but project forward to today. There are so many echoes with what’s going on now, and it has such contemporary relevance. It’s an absolutely gripping read.’
Tim Bouverie, a former Channel4 News political journalist, was the 2020-21 Alistair Horne Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford. His first book was the Sunday Times bestseller Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain Churchill and the Road to War, shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. For Allies At War, he drew on material from over a hundred archives, including vivid first-hand accounts and unpublished diaries, to reveal the political drama behind the military events.
Tim Bouverie said: ‘I am utterly delighted to have won the Duff Cooper Prize. To be included in the list of names of some the historians and writers I have most admired, including Patrick Leigh-Fermor, Margaret MacMillan, Julian Jackson and Michael Howard, is a deep honour.’
Duff Cooper read History at New College between 1908 and 1911, where he was a keen member of the Twenty Club, the College’s debating society. New College is now the home of the Duff Cooper Memorial Fund, the charity responsible for the Prize.
Tim Bouverie will be speaking at the Oxford Literary Festival on Wednesday 26 March.
At a special 70th anniversary event at the Oxford Literary Festival, Artemis Cooper will discuss the challenges of writing non-fiction together with historian Antony Beevor, the Telegraph’s Literary editor Cal Revely-Calder, and the Warden of New College, Miles Young. The event will take place at 12 noon on 22 March 2026 in the MacGregor Matthews Room, New College.