Vaillant wins Baillie Gifford Prize

In the UK, John Vaillant has won the £50,000 (A$95,350) Baillie Gifford Prize for Fire Weather: A true story from a hotter world (Sceptre).

Judges said Fire Weather is a ‘meticulously researched, thrillingly told book’ about the wildfires that struck Fort McMurray, Canada, in 2016. ‘Fire Weather brings together a series of harrowing human stories with science and geo-economics, in an extraordinary and elegantly rendered account of a terrifying climate disaster that engulfed a community and industry, underscoring our toxic relationship with fossil fuels,’ said chair of judges Frederick Studemann.

Fire Weather was chosen as the winner from a shortlist of six announced last month.

All works of nonfiction by authors of any nationality are eligible for the award, which is the richest prize for nonfiction in the UK. The winner of last year’s prize was Katherine Rundell for Super-Infinite: The transformations of John Donne (Faber). More information about the award is available on the website.

Category: International news