BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction

The BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction aims to reward the best of non-fiction, from biography, travel and popular science to the arts and current affairs. The Samuel Johnson is the UK's richest prize for non-fiction and was set up in 1999. The winner receives £30,000. Each of the six shortlisted authors receives £1,000. The prize is open to any non-fiction book as long as it is published in English and in the UK.

2008

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher

Kate Summerscale

Blood river: A Journey to Africa's broken heart

Tim Butcher

Crow Country

Mark Cocker

The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia

Orlando Figes

The World is what it is: The Authorized biography of V S Naipaul

Patrick French

The Rest is noise: Listening to the 20th century

Alex Ross

2007

Imperial Life in the Emerald City Winner

Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Murder in Amsterdam

Ian Buruma

Having it so Good: Britain in the Fifties

Peter Hennessy

Daughter of the Desert

Georgina Howell

Brainwash

Dominic Streatfeild

The Verneys

Adrian Tinniswood

2006

1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare Winner

James Shapiro

Untold Stories

Alan Bennett

The Sale of the Late King's Goods

Jerry Brotton

Bad Faith

Carmen Callil

Postwar

Tony Judt

The Orientalist

Tom Reiss

2005

• Like a Fiery Elephant: The Life of B S Johnson Jonathan Coe Winner
• Stuart: A Life backwards Alexander Masters
• Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found Suketu Mehta
• Istanbul: Memories of a city Orhan Pamuk
• Matisse the Master Hilary Spurling
• The Italian Boy: Murder and Grave Robbery in 1830s London Sarah Wise

2004

• Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall Anna Funder Winner
• Gulag: A History of the Soviet Camps Anne Applebaum
• John Clare: A Biography Jonathon Bate
• A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson
• The Zanzibar Chest: A Memoir of Love and War Aidan Hartley
• Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic Tom Holland

2003

• Pushkin T. J. Binyon Winner
• Natasha's Dance: a cultural history of Russia Orlando Figes
• The Devil that danced on the water: a daughter's memoir of her father, her family, her country and a continent Aminatta Forna
• Dr Tatiana's sex advice to all creation Olivia Judson
• Samuel Pepys: the unequalled self Claire Tomalin
• Nelson: Love and fame Edgar Vincent

2002

• Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and its attempt to end war Margaret Macmillan Winner
• The Voices of Morebath Eamon Duffy
• The Snow geese William Fiennes
• The Invention of clouds: how an amateur meteorologist forged the language of the skies Richard Hamblyn
• Churchill: a biography Roy Jenkins
• Unfinest hour: Britain and the destruction of Bosnia Brendan Simms

2001

• The Third Reich Michael Burleigh Winner
• Trilobite! Eyewitness to evolution Richard Fortey
• Night of stone Catherine Merridale
• Rimbaud Graham Robb
• Prince of princes: The Life of Potemkin Simon Sebag Montefiore
• John Maynard Keynes Robert Skidelsky

2000

• Berlioz: volume 2 David Cairns Winner
• Playing the Moldovans at tennis Tony Hawks
• Yeats's ghosts Brenda Maddox
• Genome Matt Ridley
• Deliver us from evil William Shawcross
• Karl Marx Francis Wheen

1999

• Stalingrad Antony Beevor Winner
• Hitler Ian Kershaw
• Pilate Ann Wroe
• C: Because cowards get cancer too John Diamond
• Coleridge: Darker reflections Richard Holmes
• Wealth and poverty of nations David Landes