Richard Flanagan’s Question 7 wins The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2024

Question 7 by Richard Flanagan is tonight named winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2024. The winner was announced by Chair of Judges, Isabel Hilton, at a ceremony hosted in London and generously supported by The Blavatnik Family Foundation. The announcement was streamed to readers around the world via the Baillie Gifford Prize social media channels.

With his win, Flanagan becomes the first author to ‘win the double’ of the Booker Prize for Fiction and the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, an achievement that affirms him as one of the most significant and acclaimed writers in the English language.

Beginning at a love hotel by Japan's Inland Sea and ending by a river in Tasmania, Question 7 is about the choices we make about love and the chain reaction that follows. Exploring the value of life, Flanagan tackles far-ranging seemingly disparate personal and historical topics, from H.G. Wells’ affair with Rebecca West, to the atomic bomb and his own near-death experience, expertly documenting life’s chain reaction: from past to present to future.

Question 7 has received widespread critical acclaim. As Michael Dirda notes in the Washington Post, in both the author’s body of fiction and non-fiction work he has, ‘boldly wrestled with the social, political and moral complexities of modern history.’ In the Sunday Times, James McConnachie says Question 7 ‘has all the complexity of emotional heft of a great novel’ and that it ‘sets the high-water mark for what the genre [of memoir] can be.' Alex Preston in The Observer calls Question 7 a ‘masterpiece without question.’

Flanagan, who has been published in over 40 countries, has been described by the Washington Post as one of our greatest living novelists and as among the most versatile writers in the English language by the New York Review of Books. He won the Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North and the Commonwealth Prize for Gould’s Book of Fish.

In a recent interview with Georgina Godwin for Read Smart, the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction’s podcast, Flanagan reflects on how the idea of Question 7 evolved over time. He talks about the fact there were many things that had absorbed him for many years, that were brought to a head coming out of the COVID pandemic; ‘like many people I began to wonder what it was to live, and really that leads to the questions of love and the darker subterranean forces that really shape us.’

The Baillie Gifford Prize recognises and rewards the best of non-fiction and is open to authors of any nationality. As the winner, Richard Flanagan will receive £50,000, with the other shortlisted authors each receiving £5,000, bringing the total prize value to £75,000.

Question 7 was chosen by this year’s judging panel: journalist, broadcaster and founder of China Dialogue, Isabel Hilton (chair); author and investigative journalist, Heather Brooke; comment and culture editor for New Scientist, Alison Flood; culture editor of Prospect, Peter Hoskin; writer and critic, Tomiwa Owolade; and author, restaurant critic and journalist, Chitra Ramaswamy. Their selection was made from 349 books published between 1 November 2023 and 31 October 2024.

Isabel Hilton, Chair of Judges, says:

“Question 7 is an astonishingly accomplished meditation on memory, history, trauma, love and death – and an intricately woven exploration of the chains of consequence that frame a life.

In a year rich in remarkable books, Richard Flanagan’s Question 7 spoke to the judges for its outstanding literary qualities and its profound humanity. This compelling memoir ranges from intimate human relations to an unflinching examination of the horrors of the 20^th century, reflecting on unanswerable questions that we must keep asking.”

Toby Mundy, Prize director, says:

“In winning the Baillie Gifford Prize 2024 with QUESTION 7, Richard Flanagan has achieved an unprecedented double. No author has ever won both this prize and the Booker Prize for fiction. It is a staggering achievement, which confirms Richard Flanagan as one of the world’s most significant literary writers.”

Peter Singlehurst, Partner at Baillie Gifford, says:

“Congratulations to Richard for his transformative exploration of memory, history, and the moral complexities of life. And to all the authors who made the shortlist, thank you for your exceptional and impactful works.”

The other titles on this year’s shortlist were:

Read Smart, the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction’s podcast, will release an episode devoted to the winner of the 2024 award, hosted by Georgina Godwin and featuring Richard Flanagan. It will be available the week following the winner announcement.