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Arts & Ideas

Wolfson Prize 2023

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2598 Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2023

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Six historians have been shortlisted for the 2023 history writing prize which has been awarded for over fifty years. Rana Mitter has been talking to the authors about the books in contention: African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History by Hakim Adi The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe by James Belich The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators between Qing China and the British Empire by Henrietta Harrison Vagabonds: Life on the Streets of Nineteenth-Century London by Oskar Jensen Resistance: The Underground War in Europe, 1939-1945 by Halik Kochanski Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers by Emma Smith

The winner is announced on November 13th 2023. You can find interviews with past nominees for the Wolfson prize, plus winners of other non fiction prizes like the Cundill and the British Academy Book Prize in previous editions of Free Thinking all available on BBC Sounds and as the Arts & Ideas podcast.

Producer: Ruth Watts

Transcript

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0:00.0

Can I just say?

0:01.5

You're about to listen to a BBC podcast.

0:04.0

It's such a wonderful listen.

0:05.6

So nice.

0:06.5

There are loads more like it on BBC sounds.

0:08.8

Different paces, different heights.

0:10.6

The roof is buckling.

0:11.9

Where you can also listen to live sports commentary.

0:14.2

It's right foot goes for goal.

0:16.7

And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories.

0:21.7

The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession.

0:25.2

And she's had to live with that.

0:26.8

So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion.

0:29.7

Listen on BBC Sounds.

0:31.7

Sort of expecting that every week now.

0:35.8

BBC Sounds, music, Radio, podcasts.

0:40.2

It's time for six of the best, the best historians, that is, this year shortlist for the

0:45.8

Wolfson Prize in history, which will take us from 18th century China to 20th century

0:50.3

Eastern Europe via the horrors of bubonic plague.

0:53.6

That's all after this word.

0:55.9

BBC Radio 3 is the home of the BBC proms.

0:59.7

Welcome to the first night of the BBC proms.

...

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