The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction

Anne Applebaum

Anne Applebaum is the author of several books, including Gulag: A History, which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize and the Duff Cooper Prize, and Iron Curtain, which in 2013 won the Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature and the Cundill Prize in Historical Literature. She is Professor of Practice at the Institute for Global Affairs, London School of Economics, and a columnist for the Washington Post. She divides her time between Britain and Poland.

Emma Duncan

Emma Duncan is Editor of Intelligent Life magazine, having previously held the posts of Deputy Editor, Britain Editor, Asia Editor and chief reporter, and writer and editor on climate change at The Economist. She is the author of Breaking the Curfew (Michael Joseph), a book on politics, culture and society in Pakistan. She appears regularly on television and radio, and has written for publications including The Times, The Evening Standard, The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph and Vogue. She is a non-executive director of Lancashire Holdings, a trustee of the George Orwell Trust and a member of the Task Force on Shale Gas. She has a degree in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford University.

Professor Rana Mitter

Professor Rana Mitter is Director of the University China Centre at the University of Oxford, where he is Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China. He is the author of several books, including the award-winning A Bitter Revolution: China’s Struggle with the Modern World (Oxford, 2004). His most recent book China’s War with Japan, 1937-45: The Struggle for Survival (Penguin, 2013) won the 2014 RUSI/Duke of Westminster’s Medal for Military Literature, was named as a 2013 Book of the Year in the Financial Times and the Economist and was named a 2014 Choice Outstanding Academic Title. He is a regular presenter of the arts and ideas programme Free Thinking on BBC Radio 3 and his reviews and essays have appeared in newspapers around the world.

Sumit Paul-Choudhury

Sumit Paul-Choudhury is Editor of New Scientist, the world's most popular science weekly. He trained as a physicist at Imperial College before becoming a journalist based in London and New York, spending fifteen years covering finance and technology before returning to science in 2008. As well as reporting and editing for a wide range of titles, he has been a reviewer for publications ranging from New Musical Express to Literary Review. In 2012 he co-founded Arc, an acclaimed quarterly dedicated to literary explorations of the future. He is writing a book about optimism and a play about artificial intelligence.

Tessa Ross

Tessa Ross was Controller of Film and Drama and head of Film 4, responsible for developing and financing films including The Last King of Scotland, Slumdog Millionaire, Hunger, This is England, The Iron Lady, Shame and Twelve Years a Slave. During her earlier stewardship of Channel 4 Drama, Ross successfully innovated the strategy that cemented a reputation based on risk and innovation, commissioning programmes such as Shameless and White Teeth. Before joining Channel 4, Tessa helped launch the BBC's Independent Commissioning Group. Tessa was appointed CBE in the New Year 2010 Honours List and received a Bafta in 2013 for Outstanding British Contribution to Film. She was briefly Chief Executive of the National Theatre, where she continues to work as a consultant.