The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction

Helena Kennedy QC

Helena Kennedy QC (Chair) has spent her professional life giving voice to those who have least power within the system, championing civil liberties and promoting human rights. She has used many public platforms – including the House of Lords, to which she was elevated in 1997 – to argue with passion, wit and humanity for social justice. She has also written and broadcast on a wide range of issues, from medical negligence to the rights of women and children. From 1992 to 1997, she was chair of Charter 88, the constitutional reform group, which persuaded the new Labour government to make devolution and human rights legislation central planks of their manifesto. She is also on the board of the Independent newspaper. She is currently chairing an inquiry for the Royal College of Pathologists and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health into sudden infant death, in the aftermath of miscarriages of justice where mothers were wrongly convicted of murdering their babies. She is currently chair of the Human Genetics Commission, which advises the UK government on the ethical, social and legal issues arising from developments in genetic science.

Dr Jim Al-Khalili

Dr Jim Al-Khalili is a professor of physics at the University of Surrey where he also holds a chair in the Public Engagement in Science. Jim’s main research interests have been in theoretical nuclear physics where he has published widely on the structure and properties of rare and exotic forms of atomic nuclei. He has written several popular science books including Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines and Quantum: A Guide for the Perplexed, which have between them been translated into 13 languages. He is a regular contributor to radio and television programmes on a range of scientific topics and will be presenting a forthcoming BBC documentary series on atoms. He is a trustee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and member of its council and a fellow of the Institute of Physics and the Royal Astronomical Society. His portrait hangs in the National Gallery as part of the “21 faces of British science” exhibit. He lives in Southsea in Hampshire with his wife and two teenage children.

Diana Athill

Diana Athill was born in Norfolk in 1917 and educated at home until she was fourteen. She read English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford and graduated in 1939. She spent the war years working at the BBC Overseas Service in the News Information Department. After the war she met André Deutsch and fell into publishing. She worked as an editor, first at Allan Wingate and then at André Deutsch, until her retirement at the age of 75 in 1993. Her books include An Unavoidable Delay, a collection of short stories published in 1962 and two 'documentary' books; After A Funeral and Make Believe. Stet is a memoir of Diana Athill's fifty-year career in publishing. Granta has also reissued a memoirInstead of a Letter and her only novel Don't Look at Me Like That. She lives in Primrose Hill in London.

Dr Tristram Hunt

Dr Tristram Hunt is a journalist and author and is one of Britain’s leading young historians specialising in Victorian urban history. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and the University of Chicago, he is the author of numerous books including Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City. In addition, Tristram has worked extensively to generate a broader public interest in heritage through his articles in The Times, The Observer, The New Statesman and specialist journals. He has written and presented a number of radio and TV series including Civil War (BBC2), Isaac Newton: Great Briton (BBC2) and Past Presence (Radio 4) and is currently working on a new project for Channel 4. Mark Lawson is a journalist, broadcaster and author. He presents BBC Radio 4's arts magazine Front Row. He has been a freelance contributor to numerous publications since 1984 and a Guardian columnist since 1995. In the mid-90s he presented The Late Show on BBC2 and from 1994 presented Late Review. He has twice been voted TV critic of the Year and has won numerous awards for arts journalism.

Mark Lawson

Mark Lawson is a journalist, broadcaster and author. He presents BBC Radio 4's arts magazine Front Row. He has been a freelance contributor to numerous publications since 1984 and a Guardian columnist since 1995. In the mid-90s he presented The Late Show on BBC2 and from 1994 presented Late Review. He has twice been voted TV critic of the Year and has won numerous awards for arts journalism.