Duff Cooper Prize
The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize is an annual British literary award for outstanding non-fiction writing, established in 1956 in memory of Alfred Duff Cooper (1890–1954), a Conservative politician, diplomat, and author who served in Cabinet roles including First Lord of the Admiralty and as Ambassador to France.[1][2] Initiated by Duff Cooper's friends to honor his lifelong enthusiasm for books and intellectual pursuits, the prize targets works published in the United Kingdom that demonstrate imaginative insight, rigorous scholarship, and compelling narrative in fields such as history, biography, politics, travel writing, poetry, and literary criticism.[1][2] Administered independently and sponsored by Pol Roger champagne since 2005—hence its full current name—the award carries a monetary value of £5,000, a magnum of Pol Roger Brut Réserve, and a copy of Duff Cooper's autobiography Old Men Forget, with the inaugural winner being historian Alan Moorehead for his account of the Gallipoli campaign.[2][3][4] Among its recipients are authors of landmark works including Gitta Sereny's Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth (1995), which examined the Nazi armaments minister's post-war testimony, and more recent honorees such as Anne Applebaum for Iron Curtain (2013), a study of Soviet domination in Eastern Europe after World War II.[3][5] The prize maintains a reputation for elevating non-fiction with literary depth over journalistic expediency, consistently favoring substantive, evidence-based contributions amid a publishing landscape often skewed toward sensationalism.[6][2]History
Establishment
The Duff Cooper Prize was founded in 1956 by friends of Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich (1890–1954), a British Conservative politician, diplomat, and author noted for works such as his biography of Talleyrand, to commemorate his lifelong passion for literature and intellectual pursuits.[1] Duff Cooper, who served in roles including First Lord of the Admiralty and British Ambassador to France, died on 1 January 1954, prompting the establishment of the memorial prize shortly thereafter as a means to perpetuate his appreciation for non-fiction writing in fields like history, biography, and politics.[1][7] Administered initially through the Duff Cooper Memorial Fund—a charity affiliated with New College, Oxford—the prize targeted outstanding works published in English or French, reflecting Cooper's own bilingual literary interests and his emphasis on rigorous, evidence-based scholarship over partisan narratives.[1][8] The inaugural award went to journalist Alan Moorehead for Gallipoli, recognizing its factual depth in recounting World War I military history, thereby setting a precedent for prizing empirical analysis in non-fiction.[6] This foundation underscored the prize's commitment to substantive intellectual contributions, independent of prevailing ideological trends in post-war British academia or media.[1]Evolution and Sponsorship Changes
The Duff Cooper Prize has demonstrated remarkable stability since its inception, with annual awards uninterrupted from 1956 onward and a consistent focus on outstanding works of history, biography, politics, or—rarely—poetry published in English or French. This scope has broadened slightly in presentation to encompass exemplary non-fiction more generally, without altering core eligibility or judging standards.[3][2] Administration has evolved through generational continuity within the Duff Cooper Memorial Fund, a charity established in 1954 and housed at New College, Oxford. Initial oversight by Duff Cooper's son, John Julius Norwich, spanned from 1956 to 1987, followed by his daughter, Artemis Cooper, who has maintained family involvement alongside academic judges serving fixed terms. Judging panels, comprising five members including ex-officio representatives from New College and the family, prioritize scholarly merit through independent deliberation.[1][8] Sponsorship changes have been limited but impactful, with the introduction of support from Pol Roger, the champagne house, enabling the current £5,000 monetary award alongside a magnum of Pol Roger Brut Réserve and a first-edition copy of Duff Cooper's autobiography Old Men Forget. This partnership, reflected in the prize's official designation as The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize, funds ceremonial elements and prize enhancements while the Memorial Fund retains governance. No prior commercial sponsors are recorded, underscoring the prize's reliance on endowments until this development.[2][9]Administration
Judging Process
The judging panel comprises five members, chaired by Artemis Cooper, who serves ex officio as the granddaughter of Duff Cooper. It includes the Warden of New College, Oxford—currently Miles Young—and three additional judges appointed for renewable five-year terms, with the panel responsible for selecting its own successors.[10][11] Entries are sourced primarily through publisher nominations, limited to five titles per publisher via an online form, with submissions required by 1 June of the year following the book's publication (covering works released between 1 January and 31 December of the prior year). Publishers must be members of the Publishers Association or equivalent, and only finished books in English by living authors qualify; translations, self-published works, and multi-volume sets are ineligible. The judges may independently request additional eligible titles from publishers at any stage, and the administrator's determination of eligibility is final. Books submitted are non-returnable.[12][10] The panel assesses submissions for compelling narrative, imaginative insight, rigorous scholarship, and excellence in writing, prioritizing non-fiction across genres such as history, biography, politics, travel, and literary criticism. A shortlist of typically five books is announced in January, followed by the winner's reveal in early March, accompanied by a £5,000 prize and a first-edition copy of Duff Cooper's Old Men Forget.[12][10]Eligibility Criteria and Prize Details
The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize is open to non-fiction works published in the United Kingdom by an imprint with a formal presence there, covering genres such as history, biography, travel writing, politics, poetry, and literary criticism.[12] Eligible titles must appear between January 1 and December 31 of the calendar year preceding the award announcement, excluding self-published books, translations, and multi-volume works.[12] Submissions are accepted exclusively from UK publishers, limited to five titles per publisher, with no direct entries from authors; publishers must provide ten print copies, one e-copy, and promotional materials upon nomination.[12] The prize carries a monetary award of £5,000, a magnum of Pol Roger champagne, and a first-edition copy of Duff Cooper's autobiography Old Men Forget.[2][13] Publishers of shortlisted titles contribute £1,000 toward marketing efforts, while the winning publisher provides an additional £1,000 and must label all subsequent editions of the book as "Winner of the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize."[12] There is no entry fee, and the judging panel may request additional eligible titles beyond submissions.[12] The award emphasizes narrative compellingness, imaginative insight, scholarly rigor, and literary quality in non-fiction.[12]Laureates
Early Awardees (1956–1975)
The Duff Cooper Prize's early years featured awards to a range of non-fiction genres, including military history, biography, travel, and occasionally poetry, underscoring the prize's initial flexibility in honoring distinguished literary merit beyond strict biography or politics.[14] The inaugural recipient in 1956 was Alan Moorehead for Gallipoli, his authoritative account of the failed Allied campaign in the Dardanelles during World War I, praised for its vivid narrative drawn from primary sources and personal observation.[3] Subsequent awards highlighted biographical depth, such as George Painter's two-volume study of Marcel Proust in 1966, which drew on extensive archival research to illuminate the novelist's life and creative process, and Quentin Bell's Virginia Woolf in 1973, the first volume of an official biography utilizing family papers to correct prior misconceptions.[14] Notable early winners also included travel works like Patrick Leigh Fermor's Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese (1960), documenting remote Greek landscapes and customs through immersive firsthand exploration, and nature writing such as J.A. Baker's The Peregrine (1968), a poetic yet precise journal of falcon observation amid environmental decline.[14] Poetry collections received recognition in select years, reflecting Duff Cooper's own verse interests, though this practice waned post-1975. No award was given in 1958.[14]| Year | Author | Work |
|---|---|---|
| 1956 | Alan Moorehead | Gallipoli |
| 1957 | Lawrence Durrell | Bitter Lemons |
| 1959 | John Betjeman | Collected Poems |
| 1960 | Patrick Leigh Fermor | Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese |
| 1961 | Andrew Young | Collected Poems |
| 1962 | Jocelyn Baines | Joseph Conrad |
| 1963 | Michael Howard | The Franco-Prussian War |
| 1964 | Aileen Ward | John Keats: The Making of a Poet |
| 1965 | Ivan Morris | The World of the Shining Prince |
| 1966 | George Painter | Marcel Proust (Vol. 1) |
| 1967 | Nirad C. Chaudhuri | The Continent of Circe |
| 1968 | J.A. Baker | The Peregrine |
| 1969 | Roy Fuller | New Poems |
| 1970 | John Gross | The Rise and Fall of the Man of Letters |
| 1971 | Enid McLeod | Charles of Orleans: Prince & Poet |
| 1972 | Geoffrey Grigson | Discoveries of Bones and Stones |
| 1973 | Quentin Bell | Virginia Woolf (Vol. 1) |
| 1974 | Robin Lane Fox | Alexander the Great |
| 1975 | Jon Stallworthy | Wilfred Owen |
Later Awardees (1976–Present)
The Duff Cooper Prize, later sponsored by Pol Roger from 2009, has awarded works spanning biography, history, political analysis, and literary criticism in the later period, reflecting evolving scholarly interests in European history, imperial legacies, and intellectual figures.[1] Awardees include multiple winners of biographies on political and artistic leaders, such as Julian Jackson's accounts of French statesmen.[3]| Year | Author(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Seamus Heaney | North[14] |
| 1977 | Denis Mack Smith | Mussolini’s Roman Empire[14] |
| 1978 | E. R. Dodds | Missing Persons[14] |
| 1979 | Mark Girouard | Life in the English Country House[14] |
| 1980 | Geoffrey Hill | Tenebrae[14] |
| 1981 | Robert Bernard Martin | Tennyson: The Unquiet Heart[14] |
| 1982 | Victoria Glendinning | Edith Sitwell: A Unicorn Among the Lions[14] |
| 1983 | Richard Ellmann | James Joyce[14] |
| 1984 | Peter Porter | Collected Poems[14] |
| 1985 | Hilary Spurling | Ivy When Young: The Early Life of Ivy Compton-Burnett 1884–1919[14] |
| 1986 | Ann Thwaite | Edmund Gosse: A Literary Landscape, 1849–1928[14] |
| 1987 | Alan Crawford | C. R. Ashbee: Architect, Designer, and Romantic Socialist[14] |
| 1988 | Robert Hughes | The Fatal Shore[14] |
| 1989 | Humphrey Carpenter | A Serious Character: The Life of Ezra Pound[14] |
| 1990 | Ian Gibson | Federico Garcia Lorca[14] |
| 1991 | Hugh Cecil and Mirabel Cecil | Clever Hearts: Desmond and Molly MacCarthy: A Biography[14] |
| 1992 | Ray Monk | Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius[14] |
| 1993 | Peter Hennessy | Never Again: Britain, 1945–1951[14] |
| 1994 | John Keegan | A History of Warfare[14] |
| 1995 | David Gilmour | Curzon: Imperial Statesman[14] |
| 1996 | Gitta Sereny | Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth[14] |
| 1997 | Diarmaid MacCulloch | Thomas Cranmer: A Life[14] |
| 1998 | James Buchan | Frozen Desire: An Inquiry into the Meaning of Money[14] |
| 1999 | Richard Holmes | Coleridge: Darker Reflections[14] |
| 2000 | Adam Hochschild | King Leopold’s Ghost[14] |
| 2001 | Robert Skidelsky | John Maynard Keynes[14] |
| 2002 | Margaret MacMillan | Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War[14] |
| 2003 | Jane Ridley | The Architect and his Wife[14] |
| 2004 | Anne Applebaum | Gulag: A History[14] |
| 2005 | Mark Mazower | Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430–1950[14] |
| 2006 | Maya Jasanoff | Edge of Empire: Conquest and Collecting on the Eastern Frontiers of the British Empire[14] |
| 2007 | William Dalrymple | The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857[14] |
| 2008 | Graham Robb | The Discovery of France[14] |
| 2009 | Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin | American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer[14] |
| 2010 | Robert Service | Trotsky: A Biography[14] |
| 2011 | Sarah Bakewell | How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer[14] |
| 2012 | Robert Douglas-Fairhurst | Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist[14] |
| 2013 | Sue Prideaux | Strindberg: A Life[3] |
| 2014 | Lucy Hughes-Hallett | The Pike: Gabriele D’Annunzio[3] |
| 2015 | Patrick McGuinness | Other People’s Countries: A Journey into Memory[3] |
| 2016 | Ian Bostridge | Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession[3] |
| 2017 | Christopher de Hamel | Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts[3] |
| 2018 | Anne Applebaum | Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine[3] |
| 2019 | Julian Jackson | A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle[3] |
| 2020 | John Barton | A History of the Bible[3] |
| 2021 | Judith Herrin | Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe[3] |
| 2022 | Mark Mazower | The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe[3] |
| 2023 | Anna Keay | The Restless Republic: Britain without a Crown[3] |
| 2024 | Julian Jackson | France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain[3] |
| 2025 | Sue Prideaux | Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin[15] |