A shot taken December 26, 2023. Image — Getty iStockphoto: Ogulcan Aksoy
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘A Huge Range of Opinions’
The eighth cycle of the United Kingdom’s Publishers Association‘s and Booksellers Association‘s Parliamentary Book Awards this month has closed its voting period during which parliamentarians have voted on the program’s three categories’ shortlists.
Those categories, all in writings by parliamentarians, are:
- Nonfiction or Fiction
- Memoir/Autobiography
- Political Book
An awards program that really should and could be emulated by other governing bodies in world publishing, this effort is intended “to champion the best of political writing and celebrate the link between politics and the book world.”
As we’ve mentioned in the past, this program arrives annually free of ostentatious digs at other awards programs, seemingly happy to simply work out the best books in its own categories and then cheer them at a gathering in Westminster.
And some of this may be thanks to how the Parliamentary Book Awards provide us with an entertaining distinction: they are not all written by seasoned authors, nor—perhaps in most cases—not even by people who have done such a thing in the past or plan to do such a thing in the future. Literate (we hope) and often quite well spoken, the legislative luminaries and/or lowlights (your choice) behind these books can be refreshing in part for the precise reason that they’re not always folks who think of themselves as book authors.
Much of the content they may tackle can have direct societal and timely value.
Dan Conway
In a comment from the Publishers Association’s CEO Dan Conway, we read, “The Parliamentary Book Awards aim to spotlight the very best in political writing, and the last year has offered some of the most influential books yet.
“This years’ shortlist is really varied, with something for everyone. I look forward to seeing the results of the voting next year, and welcoming parliamentarians, authors, publishers, and booksellers to the House of Commons once again in February, to celebrate these important books.”
Meryl Halls
And Meryl Halls, the Booksellers Association’s managing director, says, “The Parliamentary Book Awards is such a unique event in the awards calendar and booksellers love being part of the shortlisting process.
“The awards highlight the huge range of opinions across the political spectrum and this year’s shortlist is no exception. I’m hugely looking forward to the ceremony in February and can’t wait to see which titles parliamentarians pick as the winners.”
UK Parliamentary Book Awards: 2023 Shortlist
The program expects to present its three winners with awards at Westminster’s Houses of Parliament in February.
Nonfiction or Fiction by a Parliamentarian
- Politics on the Edge: A Memoir From Within by Rory Stewart (Penguin Random House / Jonathan Cape)
- Code of Conduct: Why We Need to Fix Parliament ─ and How to Do It by Chris Bryant (Bloomsbury Publishing)
- The Winding Stair by Jesse Norman (Biteback Publishing)
Memoir or Autobiography by a Parliamentarian
- Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad: A Family Memoir of Miraculous Survival by Daniel Finkelstein (HarperCollins UK / William Collins)
- One Boy, Two Bills, and a Fry Up: A Memoir of Growing Up and Getting On by Wes Streeting (Hachette UK / Hodder & Stoughton)
- A Purposeful Life: What I’ve Learned About Breaking Barriers and Inspiring Change by Dawn Butler (Penguin Random House / Torva)
Political Book by a Non-Parliamentarian
- But What Can I Do? Why Politics Has Gone So Wrong, and How You Can Help Fix It by Alastair Campbell (Penguin Random House / Hutchinson Heinemann)
- Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History by Philippa Gregory (HarperCollins / William Collins)
- An Uneasy Inheritance: My Family and Other Radicals by Polly Toynbee (Atlantic Books)
- BUST? Saving the Economy, Democracy and Our Sanity by Robert Peston & Kishan Koria (Hodder & Stoughton)
- Planes, Trains, and Toilet Doors: 50 Places That Changed British Politics by Matt Chorley (HarperCollins UK / William Collins)
A Note on Timing
As is the case with several book and publishing competitions, the Parliamentary Book Awards’ winners are numbered for the previous year. Thus the shortlist in question was first circulated for the consideration of voting parliamentarians in mid-December, and this stage is part of the 2023 cycle of awards in progress, despite the fact that we all now seem resolutely installed in 2024.
While this is not a terribly unusual situation, of course, it does have a way of making an awards program look out of date, if not de trop, at the very moment its winners are announced and probably should be given a chance to look as au courant as possible. This round’s top titles will be named in February of 2024, for example, but they will be called last year’s prize winners, the 2023 laureates.
In such an instance, perhaps it’s worth considering adjusting a program’s schedule in order to get its process and outcome into a single year. Alternatively, a simple date change a given year’s competition could bring things into what might seem more immediacy and give the honored writers their deserved placed in the warm sun of timeliness.
More from Publishing Perspectives on publishing and book awards is here, more from us on the United Kingdom’s book market is here, more on the Publishers Association is here, more on nonfiction is here, and more on political books is here.