The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction

The UK's premier annual prize for non-fiction books

The Baillie Gifford Prize rewards excellence in non-fiction writing, bringing the best in intelligent reflection on the world to new readers. It covers all non-fiction in the areas of current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. We celebrate the best in contemporary non-fiction writing as we believe all the best stories are true.

Toby Mundy, Prize Director

And the 2025 winner is...

Congratulations to Helen Garner, winner of the 2025 Prize for Non-Fiction for her book How to End a Story.

See more from the 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction winner

The 25th anniversary prize

1599

A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare

James Shapiro

Published by: Faber & Faber

Find your next favourite read

The prize provides a growing list of books by astonishing authors to inspire, educate and inform.

Longlist

2006

The Great Wall

Julia Lovell

Longlist

2006

The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton

Kathryn Hughes

The Baillie Gifford Prize 2025: What did our judges have to say...

Hear what the judges had to say about How to End a Story

A one off documentary

To celebrate 25 years of the prize in 2023, we shared this one-off documentary with you. All The Best Stories Are True explores the history of the prize. From nail-biting moments to life changing stories, the documentary uncovers how the prize started out as the non-fiction rival to the Booker, and what the next two and a half decades hold for readers and writers in a world now steeped in ‘fake news’.