- Tim Cook for Warlords, his study of wartime prime ministers Borden and King;
- Carol Bishop-Gwyn's biography of Celia Franca, The Pursuit of Perfection;
- Ross King's Leonardo and the Last Supper;
- Andrew Preston’s Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy;
- Sandra Djwa’s Journey with No Maps, a biography of poet and painter P.K. Page.
Long ago I criticized the Taylor Prize (for "literary" nonfiction) for seeming to value fiction over nonfiction much of the time They've gone a long way in the other direction this year, with a pretty seriously informational list. The jury this year is a novelist and a television producer and Richard Gwyn, who had to recuse himself from consideration of his wife Carol Bishop-Gwyn's book. Wonder how they will handle the voting on that one?
