Elizabeth Longford Prize

The Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography was established in 2003 in memory of Elizabeth Longford (1906-2002), the British author, biographer and historian. The £5,000 prize is awarded annually for a historical biography published in the preceding year.

The Elizabeth Longford Prize is sponsored by Flora Fraser and Peter Soros and administered by the Society of Authors.

Winners

2020s

2025

• Winner: Augustus the Strong: Tim Blanning for A Study in Artistic Greatness and Political Fiasco (Allen Lane)^[1]

Shortlist:

• Stephen Alford for All His Spies: The Secret World of Robert Cecil (Allen Lane)
• Helen Castor for The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV (Allen Lane)
• Dan Jones for Henry V: The Astonishing Rise of England’s Greatest Warrior King (Apollo)
• Adam Shatz for The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon (Apollo)

2024

• Winner: Jackie Wullschläger for Monet: The Restless Vision (Allen Lane)

Shortlist:

• Deborah E. Lipstadt for Golda Meir: Israel’s Matriarch (Yale Press)
• Kal Raustiala The Absolutely Indispensable Man: Ralph Bunche, the United Nations, and the Fight to End Empire (Oxford University Press)
• M.W. Rowe for J.L. Austin:Philosopher and D-Day Intelligence Officer (Oxford University Press)
• Jackie Uí Chionna for Queen of Codes: The Secret Life of Emily Anderson, Britain’s Greatest Female Code Breaker (Headline)

2023

• Winner: Ramachandra Guha for Rebels Against the Raj: Western Fighters for India’s Freedom (William Collins)^[2]

Shortlist:^[3]

• Leanda de Lisle for Henrietta Maria: Conspirator, Warrior, Phoenix Queen (Chatto & Windus) Vintage Books
• Michael Broers for Napoleon: The Decline and Fall of an Empire 1811-1821 (Pegasus Books)
• Ruth Harris for Guru to the World: The Life and Legacy of Vivekananda (Harvard University Press)
• Daisy Hay for Dinner With Joseph Johnson: Books and Friendship in a Revolutionary Age (Vintage Books)

2022

• Winner: Andrew Roberts for George III: The Life and Reign of Britain’s Most Misunderstood Monarch (Allen Lane)^[4]

Shortlist:

• Timothy Brennan for Places of Mind, A Life of Edward Said (Bloomsbury)
• Helen Carr for The Red Prince: The Life of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster (Oneworld Publications)
• Jonathan Petropoulos for Göring's Man in Paris: The Story of A Nazi Art Plunderer and His World (Yale University Press)
• Jane Ridley for George V: Never a Dull Moment (Chatto & Windus)

2021

• Winner: Fredrik Logevall for JFK: Vol 1 (Penguin Books)^[5]

Shortlist:

• Sudhir Hazareesingh for Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture (Allen King)
• Sarah LeFanu for Something of Themselves: Kipling, Kingsley, Conan Doyle and the Anglo-Boer War (Hurst)
• Samanth Subramanian for A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J.B.S Haldane (Atlantic)

2020

• Winner: D W. Hayton for Conservative Revolutionary: The Lives of Lewis Namier^[6]

Shortlist:

• Andrew S. Curran for Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely
• Richard J. Evans for Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History
• Oliver Soden for Michael Tippett: The Biography
• A. N. Wilson for Prince Albert: The Man Who Saved the Monarchy

2010s

2019

• Winner: Julian Jackson for A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle^[7]

Shortlist:

• Diarmaid MacCulloch for Thomas Cromwell: A Life
• Andrew Roberts for Churchill: Walking with Destiny
• Jeffrey C. Stewart for The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke

2018

• Giles Tremlett for Isabella of Castile: Europe's First Great Queen^[8]

2017

• John Bew for Citizen Clem: A Biography of Attlee

2016

• Andrew Gailey for The Lost Imperialist: Lord Dufferin, Memory and Mythmaking in an Age of Celebrity

2015

• Ben Macintyre for A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal

2014

• Charles Moore for Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography. Volume 1

2013

• Anne Somerset for Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion

2012

• Frances Wilson for How to Survive the Titanic or The Sinking of J. Bruce Ismay^[9]

2011

• Philip Ziegler for Edward Heath (bio of Edward Heath)^[10]

2010

• Tristram Hunt for The Frock-Coated Communist - The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels

2000s

2009

• Mark Bostridge for Florence Nightingale. The Woman and Her Legend

2008

• Rosemary Hill for God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain^[11]

2007

• Jessie Childs for Henry VIII's Last Victim: The Life and Times of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey^[12]

2006

• Charles Williams for Petain: How the Hero of France Became a Convicted Traitor and Changed the Course of History

2005

• Ian Kershaw for Making Friends with Hitler: Lord Londonderry, the Nazis, and the Road to War

2004

• Katie Whitaker for Mad Madge: Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, Royalist, Writer and Romantic

2003

• David Gilmour for The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling