What's the best non-fiction you've ever read? I've been trying to increase the amount of historical accounts and biographies I read and I'm looking for some more top choices. I've read some great titles in the past several months including Katherine Rundell's “Super-Infinite” - a brilliantly innovative biography of the poet John Donne which won The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction last year. This is the UK's premiere book prize for non-fiction and it's their 25th anniversary this year. To celebrate they've created a Winner of Winners Award (I keep thinking of this in Drag Race terms – Legendary Legends!) A specially selected group of judges are pitting all past 24 winners of the Baillie Gifford against each other to choose one overall winner on April 27th and that author will receive £25,000. They've now chosen this extremely compelling shortlist of six books.
“Empire of Pain” by Patrick Radden Keefe is one of my favourite books of non-fiction that I've read in recent years. It's a brilliant and riveting exploration of the Sackler family's scandalous involvement in the pharmaceutical industry putting profit over public welfare. I'm now keen to delve into more books from this shortlist. Many of these titles explore pivotal moments in history including James Shapiro's “1599” (the year Shakespeare produced a phenomenal amount of work including Henry the Fifth, Julius Ceasar, As You Like It and Hamlet); Margaret Macmillan's “Paris 1919” (the year of the post-WWI Paris Peace conference); and Wade Davis' “Into the Silence” (documenting the years 1921-24 when British climbers including George Mallory attempted to find a way to the summit of Everest). Barbara Demick's “Nothing to Envy” gives rare personal insight into North Korea, one of the most repressive and secretive states on earth. And Craig Brown's “One Two Three Four” is a kaleidoscopic examination of The Beatles phenomenon.
Let me know if you've read any of these books and which you'd suggest I read next. Or let me know some of your favourite non-fiction that I should add to my TBR list.
