Meek wins 2015 Orwell Prize

In the UK, James Meek has won the £3000 (A$5945) Orwell Prize for his book Private Island (Verso), which explores the phenomenon of privatisation in the UK, reports the Bookseller. The prize is awarded annually to the best book of political writing, with judges applying the ‘Orwell test—making political writing into an art’. Judge Gillian Slovo said Meek ‘has not written a polemic or an ideological tract, but a careful and elegant exploration of what exactly privatisation has produced in our country’. She added: ‘Political writing in Orwell’s tradition, and a prize by which to recognise it, has never been more needed.’  

Category: International news