‘Sexy wolves, eunuchs and pirates’ amongst Baillie Gifford prize shortlist topics | Books

“Formidable feminine novelists, ghastly literary males, a faith-shaken poet, eunuchs, pirates, attractive wolves, worldwide terrorists” are among the many topics coated by books on this yr’s Baillie Gifford shortlist, in keeping with its judging chair, Robbie Millen.

Literature is a theme of this yr’s listing, which options the collected diaries of the Australian author Helen Garner alongside books concerning the Scottish novelist Muriel Spark and the poet Tennyson.

The shortlist for the UK’s most prestigious nonfiction prize additionally consists of books on the historical past of Islamic slavery and the emergence of radical extremism within the west. “The six books on this yr’s shortlist have actual breadth by way of subject material and magnificence,” mentioned Millen, who’s literary editor of the Occasions and the Sunday Occasions.

The Guardian’s worldwide safety correspondent, Jason Burke, is shortlisted for The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the Nineteen Seventies. The guide “makes a counterintuitive argument”, mentioned the judges, “tracing the decline of the left that led to the rise of Islamism”, and is “tremendously well-written”.

Garner was shortlisted for Tips on how to Finish a Story, described by the Guardian’s reviewer Rachel Cooke as “the best, richest journals by a author since Virginia Woolf’s”.

Richard Holmes, who was beforehand shortlisted in 1999 and 2009, this time makes the lower for The Boundless Deep: Younger Tennyson, Science and the Disaster of Perception.

Frances Wilson, beforehand longlisted in 2016 and 2021, was chosen for Electrical Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, described as a “canny biography” by Olivia Laing in her Guardian evaluate.

Requested concerning the literary bent to this yr’s shortlist at a press convention on Wednesday, Millen mentioned that there was “most likely much less straight historical past being revealed than maybe a number of years in the past”.

Finishing this yr’s shortlist is Captives and Companions: A Historical past of Slavery and the Slave Commerce within the Islamic World by Justin Marozzi, and Lone Wolf: Strolling the Faultlines of Europe by Adam Weymouth.

Requested concerning the lack of racial range on the shortlist – all six authors are white – Millen mentioned that “the range [the judges] had been most interested by was range of matter and magnificence, and it simply occurred that that’s the best way the playing cards fell”.

The winner of the prize will likely be introduced on 4 November. Whereas the winner will take residence £50,000, the opposite shortlisted authors will obtain £5,000 every.

The Baillie Gifford prize is sponsored by the funding administration firm Baillie Gifford. Lately, the agency has confronted criticism for its investments in companies linked to fossil fuels and Israel. Protests final yr led to the corporate’s sponsorships of 9 UK literary festivals coming to an finish.

Final yr’s winner, Richard Flanagan – who received the prize for his guide Query 7 – mentioned he wouldn’t settle for the prize cash till Baillie Gifford shared a plan to cut back its funding in fossil gas extraction and improve investments in renewables.

In Wednesday’s convention, the prize director, Toby Mundy, mentioned that Flanagan had had a “candid” dialog with the fund supervisor, however the final end result was that Flanagan didn’t settle for the cash. It should as an alternative be donated to a literacy charity.

The corporate’s dedication to sponsor the prize expires this yr, so the prize is “deep into conversations” with Baillie Gifford about future sponsorship. There have been “very optimistic indications” that the corporate would proceed to sponsor the award, mentioned Mundy.

Twelve books had been longlisted for this yr’s prize. The longlist additionally featured Daughters of the Bamboo Grove by Barbara Demick; The Best Resort in Kabul by Lyse Doucet; The Final Days of Budapest by Adam LeBor; John & Paul by Ian Leslie; Issues in Nature Merely Develop by Yiyun Li; and Between the Waves by Tom McTague.

Becoming a member of Millen on this yr’s judging panel are the historian and creator Pratinav Anil; the journalist and broadcaster Inaya Folarin Iman; the cultural historian, biographer and novelist, and former winner of the prize, Lucy Hughes-Hallett; the deputy tradition editor of the Economist, Rachel Lloyd; and the creator and biographer Peter Parker.

Judges made their choices from 350 books revealed between 1 November 2024 and 31 October 2025.

Current winners of the prize embody John Vaillant, Katherine Rundell, Patrick Radden Keefe and Craig Brown.