The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2011

The shortlist for the 2011 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction was announced this evening:

•Mao's Great Famine by Frank Dikötter (Bloomsbury)


•Caravaggio by Andrew Graham Dixon (Allen Lane)

•Liberty's Exiles by Maya Jasanoff (HarperPress)

•The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley (Fourth Estate)

•Bismarck: A Life by Jonathan Steinberg (Oxford University Press)

•Reprobates by John Stubbs (Viking)

The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize rewards the best non-fiction published in the UK. Now in its 13th year the Prize is worth £20,000 to the winning author.

The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction