We are delighted to announce that the 2015 Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography will be awarded to Ben Macintyre for A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal (Bloomsbury).
The £5,000 Prize will be introduced by Roy Foster and presented by Flora Fraser on Thursday 25 June at the Society of Authors’ annual awards party, at The Army and Navy Club in Pall Mall. Other prizes administered by the Society will be presented by Sarah Waters.
The prize is generously sponsored by Flora Fraser and Peter Soros in affectionate memory of Elizabeth Longford, the acclaimed biographer.
The judges this year were Antonia Fraser, Flora Fraser, David Gilmour, Munro Price and Roy Foster (Chair). Speaking on behalf of the judges, Roy Foster said:
Ben Macintyre’s book analyses psychology and social history as well as decoding the world of the spy with the precision of Le Carré. His sparkling style and sharp wit should not distract from the fact that A Spy Among Friends does what serious historical biography ought to do: it illuminates an individual’s life and actions by locating them, with scholarly care and insight, firmly within the context of their times.