Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan makes history securing Baillie Gifford gong

Richard Flanagan, who won the Booker Prize for fabrication successful 2014, has go the archetypal writer successful past to execute the “unprecedented double” aft being named the victor of the Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction.

Australian Flanagan secured the non-fiction grant for his memoir Question 7, astir the choices we marque astir emotion and the concatenation absorption that follows, which was announced astatine a ceremonial hosted astatine BMA House successful London connected Tuesday.

It comes a decennary aft helium won the Booker Prize with his caller The Narrow Road To The Deep North – making him the archetypal writer to person earned some honours.

Isabel Hilton, seat of judges, said: “Question 7 is an astonishingly accomplished meditation connected memory, history, trauma, emotion and decease – and an intricately woven exploration of the chains of effect that framework a life.

“In a twelvemonth affluent successful singular books, Richard Flanagan’s Question 7 spoke to the judges for its outstanding literate qualities and its profound humanity.

“This compelling memoir ranges from intimate quality relations to an unflinching introspection of the horrors of the 20th century, reflecting connected unanswerable questions that we indispensable support asking.”

Flanagan bushed British shortlisted authors Rachel Clarke, for bosom transplant communicative The Story Of A Heart, and Sue Prideaux’s creator biography Wild Thing: A Life Of Paul Gauguin to triumph the prize.

Other shortlisted titles were Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario; Viet Thanh Nguyen’s A Man Of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial and David Van Reybrouck Revolusi: Indonesia And The Birth Of The Modern World – with each writer receiving a £5,000 prize.

Flanagan volition person £50,000 for winning the Baillie Gifford Prize, which recognises and rewards the champion of non-fiction.

Toby Mundy, prize director, said: “In winning the Baillie Gifford Prize 2024 with Question 7, Richard Flanagan has achieved an unprecedented double.

“No writer has ever won some this prize and the Booker Prize for fiction.

“It is simply a staggering achievement, which confirms Richard Flanagan arsenic 1 of the world’s astir important literate writers.”

The judges selected the victor from 349 books published betwixt November 1 2023 and October 31 2024.