James Shapiro has been announced as one of six authors shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction’s Winner of Winners Award.
This special award marks the 25th anniversary of the prize, with the judges choosing their shortlist from the 24 titles that have previously won the prize—all works of “high ambition, formal innovation and thrilling originality.”
Shapiro's 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, which won in the prize in 2006, explores a pivotal year in the life of William Shakespeare who, in the course of 1599, penned Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Hamlet. The judges describe the book as a “dazzling feat of scholarship” and a “superbly original book”, adding: “The story of four masterpieces produced against a background of intense political and cultural drama, 1599 is a biography of genius, in every sense of the phrase.”
You can find more information about Shapiro's work and the Baillie Gifford Winner of Winners shortlist in this article from The Guardian, and on the Baillie Gifford Prize website.
