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Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize 2015

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About the 2015 Prize

2015 was the second year of Slightly Foxed’s support for the Biographers’ Club Best First Biography Prize, with a winner’s award of £3,500. The prize is given to the best book by a published first-time biographer.

2015 Shortlist

  • Anita Anand. Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary (Bloomsbury)
  • Michael Bundock, The Fortunes of Francis Barber (Yale)
  • Alan Cumming, Not My Father’s Son (Canongate)
  • Lyndsey Jenkins, Lady Constance Lytton: Aristocrat, Suffragette, Martyr (Biteback)
  • Sarah Knights, Bloomsbury’s Outsider: A Life of David Garnett (Bloomsbury)

2015 Judges

  • Damian Barr, author of Maggie & Me and creator and host of the Literary Salon at Shoreditch House.
  • Fiona MacCarthy, biographer of Eric Gill, William Morris, Lord Byron, Edward Burne-Jones and Walter Gropius (to come).
  • James Naughtie, who chairs Book Club on Radio 4 and is author most recently of The Madness of July.

2015 Winner

Alan Cumming for Not My Father’s Son (Canongate)

‘Alan Cumming’s Not My Father’s Son is a brilliant antidote to the celebrity memoir, because his story isn’t raw for the sake of it. The violence and mental distress of a broken family, and the strange dichotomy of his youth, are rendered with an eloquence and wit that set it apart. This is a real book.’ – James Naughtie


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