Patrick Radden Keefe has landed on the six-strong shortlist for the 2026 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction with his narrative nonfiction book London Falling, competing against five other authors for the £50,000 prize. The winner will be announced on November 4, and the shortlist covers subjects ranging from London’s criminal underbelly to the Syrian civil war, drawing from a longlist of 13 books selected from over 350 eligible titles published between November 1, 2025, and October 31, 2026.
Patrick Radden Keefe Returns to the Baillie Gifford Shortlist
Keefe previously won the prize in 2021 for his book Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty. His shortlisted book London Falling investigates the death of Zac Brettler, a British teenager who fell from a luxury London apartment after pretending to be the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch. In a review for The Guardian, Ian Thomson described the book as “a scrupulously researched work of narrative nonfiction” and “grimly absorbing from start to finish.”
The 2026 Shortlist Contenders
Chair of judges Kirsty Lang stated that the six shortlisted books offer "something for everyone" while dealing with a complex world. The finalists span literary biography, ancient history, true crime, and international reportage:
- Andrea Wulf for The Traveller, tracing the life of 18th-century naturalist and explorer George Forster, who joined Captain Cook’s second voyage around the world as a teenager. Wulf was previously longlisted for the prize in 2008.
- Matthew Sweet for The Great Dictator, which explores prolific romance novelist Barbara Cartland—who dictated 723 novels—against the backdrop of 20th-century social and sexual politics. Reviewer Kathryn Hughes wrote in The Guardian that Sweet regards Cartland as a cultural phenomenon worthy of deep study.
- Edmund Richardson for Alexander, charting the life of Alexander the Great.
- Nicholas Boggs for Baldwin, a biography reflecting on the friendships and creative relationships that shaped writer James Baldwin. Ralf Webb praised the book in The Guardian for exhaustive research that re-stages Baldwin’s life in “biographic ultra-high-definition.”
- Anand Gopal for Days of Love and Rage, examining the Syrian civil war through the perspectives of residents in the northern city of Manbij.
Judging Panel and Previous Winners
The winner of the 2026 prize will be announced on November 4. Kirsty Lang chaired a judging panel that included novelist Elif Shafak, Waterstones head of books Bea Carvalho, writer and cultural historian Tiffany Jenkins, Spectator literary editor Sam Leith, and editor and reporter Ravi Mattu.
Founded in 1999 as the Samuel Johnson Prize and sponsored by investment management firm Baillie Gifford since 2016, the literary award recognized Australian writer Helen Garner last year for her collected diaries, How to End a Story.
Keep reading