The Biographers’ Club is delighted to announce that the Elizabeth Buccleuch Prize is the new name for the Tony Lothian Prize, given for the best proposal for a first-time biographer.
The £2,000 prize continues under the generous sponsorship of Richard, Duke of Buccleuch, who has named it in honour of his wife following her death last year.
The late Duchess had founded the prize in honour of her mother, Antonella (‘Tony’) Lothian. Recent winners have included Harriet Baker, whose RURAL HOURS has received widespread review coverage, Francesca Wade (SQUARE HAUNTING), Sarah Watling (NOBLE SAVAGES) and, in 2023, Andrew Kenrick (JUBA: FROM ROMAN SLAVE TO AFRICAN KING).
Submissions for the prize are now open (closing date: Friday 11 October, more details below)
Judges
- Lindsay Duguid– critic and former editor at the TLS
- Dan Franklin– former publisher at Jonathan Cape
- Catharine Morris – Associate Editor at the TLS specialising in the fields of biography and history
Past Winners
Many of the shortlisted writers (as well as winners, below) have gone on to find agents and publishers
2023 // Andrew Kenrick: Juba – From Roman Slave to African King
2022 //Catherine Haig: An Unfinished Life – Lady Gwendolen Cecil (1860–1945)
2021 //Sarah Harkness: Alexander Macmillan, Advocate for the Ignorant – The Life and Times of a Victorian Publisher (to be published by Macmillan)
2020 // Kate Crehan: But Will it Get a Laugh? The Life of Doris Hare in Three Acts (published by the Society for Theatre Research)
2019 // Tom Seymour Evans: The Canyons – Six British Exiles, Los Angeles and the Counterculture
2018 // Harriet Baker for Rural Hours: Interwar Female Writers, Landscape and Living
2017 // John Woolf for Queen Victoria’s Freaks – The Performers at Buckingham Palace (published in autumn 2018 by Michael O’Mara Books as Peerless Prodigies: Freaks, Circuses and the extraordinary World of P.T. Barnum)
2016 // Sarah Watling for Noble Savages (published by Jonathan Cape, May 2019)
2015 //Francesca Wade for Square Haunting (published by Faber, 2020)
2014 // Polly Clark for Thank You So Much for Writing
2013 // Elaine Thornton for Amalia Beer: A Prussian-Jewish Life
2012 // Jane Willis for Marguerite, Byron and the Literary Factory
2011 // Jane Gordon-Cumming for The American Heiress and the Scottish Rake: The True Story of the Royal Baccarat Scandal
2010 // Matt Cox for White Lies, Black Magic: Prince Monolulu
The 2024 Elizabeth Buccleuch Prize
Annual Deadline
Friday 11th October 2024
Entry Fee
Please download the Entry Form below and enclose it with your proposal and the fee of £20 . If you wish to pay by bank draft please email [email protected] for Biographers’ Club bank details .
- Proposals of no more than 20 pages (unbound), including synopsis, 10-page sample chapter (double-spaced, numbered pages), CV and note on the market for the book and competing literature, by post to: Ariane Bankes, E6 Albany, Piccadilly, London W1J 0AR. Enquiries: 07985 920341
- You can apply by emailing [email protected] and we will send you the form that you need to fill in. (sign and send by post with £20 fee and submission to the Prize Administrator at the above address)