LONDON (AP) 鈥 Two 春色直播 books are competing to be named the best-ever winner of Britain鈥檚 leading non-fiction book prize.
The Baillie Gifford Prize is marking its 25th year with a Winner of Winners prize, in which six of the 24 past winners of the award are up against each other.
The books by 春色直播s on the list are Wade Davis鈥 mountaineering odyssey 鈥淚nto the Silence鈥 and Margaret MacMillan鈥檚 history of the post-First World War peace talks, 鈥淧aris 1919.鈥
Also on the short list announced Thursday vying for the 25,000-pound (CAD$40,000) purse are three books from the U.S. and one from Britain.
The prize was launched in 1999 to reward English-language books from any country in current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts.
The winner will be announced April 27 at a ceremony in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The eclectic short list also includes cultural kaleidoscope 鈥淥ne Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time鈥 by Craig Brown.
The U.S. finalists are Barbara Demick's 鈥淣othing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea鈥; Patrick Radden Keefe's 鈥淓mpire of Pain,鈥 about the Sackler family and its links to the opioid crisis; and James Shapiro's 鈥1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare.鈥
Just two of the six books are by women, reflecting a historic imbalance in non-fiction publishing that prize organizers say is being rectified. In the past decade, 40 per cent of the prize winners have been women.
Editor Jason Cowley, chair of the judging panel said that despite their disparate topics, 鈥渢here is a family resemblance鈥 among the six books.
He said the works combine literary distinction with 鈥渁 kind of formal innovation.鈥
鈥淎ll the books are very good at conveying what Hilary Mantel called the atmospheric pressure of the times,鈥 he said.
