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2014 The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction

Memoirs prevailed in the 16th edition of the prize. With a widow's searing and humane account of her husband's loss of speech and death, a professor's account of a life in literature, an insight into the life and work of a neurosurgeon, a woman's story of training a goshawk, reflections on vanished provincial England and a post-war portrait of the parents of musician Ben Watt.

Longlist announced

2 September 2014

Shortlist announced

9 October 2014

Winner & prize ceremony

4 November 2014

The 2014 winner announcement
What the judges said

“Brought to life in prose sometimes technical and always striking…Writing about wild life and the environment has never been better or better informed than this.”

Helen Macdonald with her winning book 'H is for Hawk'

View the gallery of the prize-giving ceremony

What the judges said

“We found a consistently high quality of writing - clarity, colour, enthusiasm, vigour – and authors who were intellectually and emotionally engaged with their subjects. "

Meet the judges for 2014

The longlist, shortlist and winner is chosen by a panel of independent judges, which changes every year

Claire Tomalin

Vice-President of the Royal Literary Fund, the Royal Society of Literature and English PEN.

Alan Johnson MP

Former Secretary of the Communication Workers Union

Lorien Kite

Deputy Editor of Financial Times Life and Arts

Ray Monk

Author of biographies for Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, amongst others.

Ruth Scurr

Winner of a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2000

More about the judges