Shortlist
Mr B. George Balanchine's Twentieth Century
Jennifer Homans
A Life Backwards
Alexander Masters
Stuart Shorter’s brief life was one of turmoil and chaos. Stuart was homeless, with many of the problems this sub-section of British society display: alcoholism, drug-addiction, crime, violence.
Alexander Masters retraces Stuart’s troubled journey. Scattered with glimpses of the author’s friendship with Stuart in the years before his death, Masters gives us Stuart’s life in reverse, tracing his route in reverse through the post-office heists, attempts at suicide, the many spells in prison, back to a troubled time at school and a violent childhood that lead to the trouble that was to follow him all his life.
Alexander Masters lives in Cambridge, where he has worked in a hostel for homeless people. Stuart: A Life Backwards (Fourth Estate) is his first book.
Shortlist
Jennifer Homans
Longlist
Nathan Thrall
Longlist
Tiya Miles
Shortlist
Tania Branigan