Baroness Floella Benjamin, Marina Hyde, Sebastian Payne, Lisa Nandy, and Stu Hennigan shortlisted for Parliamentary Book Awards 2022
Shortlists include books on the Covid-19 pandemic, the war against Ukraine, the fall of Boris Johnson, the ups and downs of politics and how we build a country that works.
London. 19 January 2023: The shortlist for the 2022 Parliamentary Book Awards has been revealed today, celebrating the best political books of the past year.
The shortlist highlights titles by political figures, including former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock, Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom, former treasurer and deputy chairman of the Conservative party Michael Ashcroft, member of the labour party and Shadow Secretary of State for levelling up, housing and communities Lisa Nandy, and prominent political journalists including Marina Hyde and Sebastian Payne, also director of Think Tank Onward.
Now in its seventh year, the awards recognise excellent political writing across three categories: Best Non-Fiction by a Parliamentarian, Best Memoir/Autobiography by a Parliamentarian and Best Political Book by a Non-Parliamentarian.
The only political book prize voted for by parliamentarians, shortlists are selected by bookshops. The Parliamentary Book Awards were launched in 2016 by the Booksellers Association and the Publishers Association to celebrate the best of political writing and acknowledge the important link between politics and the book world.
The books shortlisted for the Parliamentary Book Awards 2022 are:
Best Non-Fiction by a Parliamentarian
• ALL IN: How we build a country that works by Lisa Nandy (HarperNorth)
• In The Shadows – The extraordinary men and women of the Intelligence Corps by Michael Ashcroft (Biteback Publishing)
• Leadership: Lessons from a Life in Diplomacy by Simon McDonald (Haus Publishing)
Best Memoir/Autobiography by a Parliamentarian
• What Are You Doing Here? by Baroness Floella Benjamin (Pan Macmillan)
• Pandemic Diaries – The inside story of Britain’s battle against Covid by Matt Hancock with Isabel Oakeshott (Biteback Publishing)
• Snakes and Ladders – Navigating the ups and downs of politics by Andrea Leadsom (Biteback Publishing)
Best Political Book by a Non-Parliamentarian
• What Just Happened?! by Marina Hyde (Faber & Faber)
• Ghost Signs by Stu Hennigan (Bluemoose Books)
• Overreach: The inside story of Putin’s war against Ukraine by Owen Matthews (Mudlark)
• The Fall of Boris Johnson by Sebastian Payne (Pan Macmillan)
Publishers were invited to nominate titles and authors for the awards, with booksellers selecting the shortlists. Voting is now open for parliamentarians to decide the winner in each category. The award winners will be announced on Wednesday 22nd February 2023.
Meryl Halls, Managing Director of the Booksellers Association, said: “The Parliamentary Book Awards have become an important fixture in both the Parliamentary and Book Industry calendars. As ever, the booksellers of the country have created strong and diverse shortlists for Parliamentarians to vote on to decide the winners. I look forward to the opportunity for booksellers and publishers to mix with Parliamentarians that the Awards Ceremony affords.”
Dan Conway, Chief Executive of the Publishers Association, said: “The Parliamentary Book Awards were created to spotlight the best political writing in the UK today, and to celebrate the longstanding relationship between politics and publishing. This year’s shortlist provides a diverse look at the political landscape and includes everything from life in post pandemic Britain and the ongoing war in Ukraine, all the way through to visions of shaping the country for the future. I look forward to welcoming parliamentarians, authors, publishers, and booksellers to the House of Commons in February to celebrate these important books.”
The 2021 awards saw a fantastic selection of winning titles including, former Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney who won Best Political Book, MP Penny Mordaunt and Chris Lewis were presented with Best Non-Fiction and MP Andrew Mitchell was awarded Best Biography, Memoir or Autobiography.
The awards are named the 2022 awards because they are for books published in 2022.