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The Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction are annual awards, granted by the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) to authors engaged in writing their first non-fiction book for a mainstream audience. The prize provides additional time or resources for writing or research, as well as raising the profile of the book when published.
Recipients must have a publishing contract and be citizens of either the UK or Ireland, or have been residents in one of these for at least the three years previous to the award.
The award was established in 2017, and secured in perpetuity through a bequest from author and RSL Fellow Giles St Aubyn. The awards replaced the earlier RSL Jerwood Award, which existed from 2004 to 2016 and was funded by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.
Giles St Aubyn (1925-2015) wrote 14 non-fiction books and taught history for nearly 40 years at Eton College. A nephew of Vita Sackville-West, he counted John Betjeman, John le Carré and the Queen Mother among his friends.
Recipients
| Year | 1st prize £10,000 |
2nd prize £5000 |
3rd prize £2500 (from 2020) |
Judges |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Oliver Basciano Outcast: A History of Us Through Leprosy (Faber & Faber) |
Taj Ali Come What May, We’re Here to Stay: A Story of South Asian Resistance (Manchester University Press) |
Katherine Dunn Right Here, Right Now: The Hidden History of How the Global Positioning System Shaped the Modern World (Mudlark, Harper Collins) |
Tom Burgis Fiona St Aubyn Leila Aboulela |
| 2022 | Nuzha Nuseibeh Namesake (Canongate, 2023) |
Ellen Atlanta Pixel Flesh: Modern Beauty Culture and The Women It Harms (Headline, Hachette, 2023) |
Malachi McIntosh A Revolutionary Consciousness: Black Britain, Black Power, and the Caribbean Artists Movement (Faber, 2025) |
Homi K. Bhahba Fiona St Aubyn Violet Moller |
| 2021 | Tomiwa Owolade This is Not America (Atlantic Books, 2022) |
Tom Ireland The Good Virus (Hodder & Stoughton, 2022) |
David Veevers A New History of the World at the Dawn of British Expansion (Penguin Random House/Ebury, 2022) |
Gwen Adshead Fiona Boyle Clive Myrie |
| 2020 | Doreen Cunningham Soundings: A Journey with Whales Virago, 2022 |
Alice Sherwood The Authenticity Playbook Harper Collins, 2022 |
Danny Lavelle Down and Out: A Journey Through Homelessness Wildfire, 2022 |
Damian Le Bas Ramita Navai Fiona St Aubyn |
| 2019 | Harry Davies Operation Information The Bodley Head, 2021 |
Olive Heffernan The High Seas: The Race to Save the Earth’s Last Wilderness Profile Books, 2021 |
†Rebecca Fogg Beautiful Trauma Granta, 2022 |
Fiona St Aubyn (Chair) Rachel Hewitt Kenan Malik |
| 2018 | Laurence Blair Lost Countries of South America: Travels in a Continent's Past and Present The Bodley Head, 2020 |
Lily Le Brun Looking to Sea: Britain Through the Eyes of its Artists Hodder and Stoughton, 2020 |
†Paul Craddock Dragon in a Suitcase: A Cultural History of the Art of Transplant Fig Tree, 2020 |
Iain Sinclair (Chair) Laura Bates Aida Edemariam Fiona St Aubyn |
| 2017 | David Farrier Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils 4th Estate, 2019 |
Lisa Woollett Scavenging John Murray, 2019 |
†Joanna Jolly Red River Girl: The Life and Death of Tina Fontaine Virago, 2019 |
Richard Holmes (Chair) Afua Hirsch Fiona St Aubyn |
† Judges' Special Commendation
References
- "The Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction". Royal Society of Literature.
- "The RSL Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction 2017 Rules and Entry Form" (PDF). Royal Society of Literature.
- "The Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction | Writer's exceptional legacy secures future of non-fiction award". rsliterature.org. The Royal Society for Literature. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
- RSL website