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Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · May 19

Calling all UK publishers of great non-fiction 📚. Tell our judges about the best books you're bringing out this year. Nominations for the 70th #duffcooperprize 🎉 now open until 1 June 2025. Details here: duffcooperprize.org/about/how-to...

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Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · Mar 17

Join Sue Prideaux, along with The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize judges Artemis Cooper & Miles Young, over a glass of fizz at @newcollegeoxf.bsky.social as part of the Oxford Literary Festival.
4th April, book now:
oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-e...
oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-e...

What Makes a Great Non-fiction Book? And Just Why it Matters. Celebrate with a Free Glass of Champagne | Oxford Literary Festival

Artemis Cooper, Sue Prideaux and Cal Revely-Calder talks to Miles Young - What Makes a Great Non-fiction Book? And Just Why it Matters. Celebrate with a Free Glass of Champagne

oxfordliteraryfestival.org

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Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · Mar 17

“‘The Polynesians loved him’: the astonishing revelations that cast Paul Gauguin in a new light”
Sue Prideaux discusses her Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize-winning biography Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin in today’s @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

‘The Polynesians loved him’: the astonishing revelations that cast Paul Gauguin in a new light

He has been tarred as a French colonialist who spread syphilis to underage girls in the South Seas. But, writes the author of an acclaimed new book, fresh discoveries challenge this view of the artist...

www.theguardian.com

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Chipping Campden Literature Festival @chipcampdenlitfest.bsky.social · Mar 13

With us in the Cotswolds in May Sue Prideaux winner 2025 @duffcooperprize.bsky.social for Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin, published by @faberbooks.bsky.social
Buy book @borzoibookshop.bsky.social
Book talk online
www.campdenmayfestivals.co.uk/literature/e...

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Chipping Campden Literature Festival @chipcampdenlitfest.bsky.social · Mar 13

Both Sue Prideaux WILD THING winner @duffcooperprize.bsky.social and (see @fivebooks.com below) Minoo Dinshaw prize judge & author of FRIENDS IN YOUTH #history The English Civil War will be with us in May
Book tickets on line
www.campdenmayfestivals.co.uk/literature/e...

Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · Mar 4

NEWS: Wild Thing by Sue Prideaux, a biography of French painter Paul Gauguin, wins the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize. Here's our interview with prize judge Minoo Dinshaw about this year's fab shortlist:

The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 Duff Cooper Prize

It's a nonfiction book prize that values "style, rigour, argument, meatiness, readability, freshness, oddity and individuality," says Minoo Dinshaw, author of Friends in Youth and one of this year's…

fivebooks.com

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Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · Mar 11

‘He’s showing the two realities simultaneously, the mental reality and the physical reality and that’s just extraordinary.’
Listen to The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize 2025 winner Sue Prideaux interviewed by judge David Horspool on the @thetls.bsky.social podcast.
www.the-tls.co.uk/regular-feat...

The TLS Podcast: March 7, 2025

Toby Lichtig chats to Sam Leith about formative literature at Jewish Book Week and David Horspool meets Sue Prideaux, winner of this year’s Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize

www.the-tls.co.uk

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · Mar 4

NEWS: Wild Thing by Sue Prideaux, a biography of French painter Paul Gauguin, wins the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize. Here's our interview with prize judge Minoo Dinshaw about this year's fab shortlist:

The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 Duff Cooper Prize

It's a nonfiction book prize that values "style, rigour, argument, meatiness, readability, freshness, oddity and individuality," says Minoo Dinshaw, author of Friends in Youth and one of this year's…

fivebooks.com

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BookBrunch @bookbrunch.bsky.social · Mar 4

Today's top story:

Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux (Faber) has won the Duff Cooper Prize

buff.ly/lu5Ibfi (£)

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · Mar 3

Many congratulations to Sue Prideaux for winning the @duffcooperprize.bsky.social for her biography of Paul Gauguin.

And many thanks to Artemis Cooper and the other judges for the honour of being shortlisted.

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Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · Mar 3

Glad to hear you’re enjoying it!

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James Barr @jamesbarr.bsky.social · Mar 3

Reading this at the moment and loving it. Well deserved.

Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · Mar 3

Congratulations to Sue Prideaux winner of The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize 2025 for Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin, published by @faberbooks.bsky.social. 🍾

Winner of The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize, Sue Prideaux, holds her winning book Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin

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Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · Mar 3

Hear winner Sue Prideaux and Artemis Cooper, chair of The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize, together at the Oxford Literary Festival at 12 noon on 4th April 2025.
oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-e...

What Makes a Great Non-fiction Book? And Just Why it Matters | Oxford Literary Festival

Artemis Cooper and Cal Revely-Calder talks to Miles Young - What Makes a Great Non-fiction Book? And Just Why it Matters

oxfordliteraryfestival.org

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Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · Mar 3

Thank you to all our judges, Artemis Cooper (chair); Miles Young, warden of New College, Oxford (@newcollegeoxf.bsky.social); Susan Brigden, David Horspool and Minoo Dinshaw.

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Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · Mar 3

Artemis Cooper, chair of judges, said: ‘Sue Prideaux’s Wild Thing brings to light a complex picture, of a man who struggled all his life to evoke his experience of being alive. She dazzles in the way she writes about his art and brings him alive in the context of his time.’

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Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · Mar 3

Congratulations to Sue Prideaux winner of The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize 2025 for Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin, published by @faberbooks.bsky.social. 🍾

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · Mar 3

Which was the best nonfiction/history book of 2024? The judges of the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize (@duffcooperprize.bsky.social) will announce their winner tonight:

The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 Duff Cooper Prize

It's a nonfiction book prize that values "style, rigour, argument, meatiness, readability, freshness, oddity and individuality," says Minoo Dinshaw, author of Friends in Youth and one of this year's…

fivebooks.com

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Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · Mar 2

We’ve spent six weeks celebrating the best non-fiction books from the past year. On Monday night we will toast them all and learn the winner of The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize 2025. (@newcollegeoxf.bsky.social)
duffcooperprize.org

The six books shortlisted for The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize 2025:

Italy Reborn: From Fascism to Democracy
Mark Gilbert (Allen Lane)

Catland: Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World
Kathryn Hughes (Fourth Estate)

The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham
Lucy Hughes-Hallett (Fourth Estate)

Forbidden Desire in Early Modern Europe: Male-Male Sexual Relations 1400-1750
Noel Malcolm (OUP)

Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin
Sue Prideaux (Faber)

Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin and the War between Science and Religion
Michael Taylor (Bodley Head)

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Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · Feb 28

Learn more about Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin and the War between Science and Religion by Michael Taylor (@TheBodleyHead), along with the other shortlisted books, on our website.

The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize 2025 winner will be announced on 3rd March. duffcooperprize.org

The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize – The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize celebrates the best in non-fiction writing

SHORTLIST Winner announcement 3 March 2025 SHORTLIST Winner announcement 3 March 2025

duffcooperprize.org

Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · Feb 28

'Taylor’s book is everything that popular scholarly history should be. It is written with clarity, zest and wit. Although impressively wide-ranging, it sustains a strong storyline. Exciting scenes abound’.
Piers Brendon in Literary Review
literaryreview.co.uk/bones-of-con...

Piers Brendon - Bones of Contention

Piers Brendon: Bones of Contention - Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin and the War Between Science and Religion by Michael Taylor

literaryreview.co.uk

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Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · Feb 28

‘Michael Taylor has produced a greatly informative, meticulously researched, and exciting read, tracing the relationship between Christianity and the explosive effects of scientific theory.’
Adam Ford reviews Impossible Monsters in @churchtimes.bsky.social www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/202...

Book review: Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin and the war between science and religion by Michael Taylor

These creatures were 19th-century celebrities, says Adam Ford

www.churchtimes.co.uk

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Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · Feb 28

'Extinction was heresy. Noah saved every single creature from the flood… it was thought that if a creature went extinct afterwards, well there was no biblical evidence for that’.
Michael Taylor talks about Impossible Monsters on @historyextra.bsky.social
www.globalplayer.com/podcasts/epi...

History Extra podcast - Podcast Episode | Global Player

Dinosaurs: a Victorian obsession

www.globalplayer.com

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Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · Feb 28

'There’s a culture war… I’m interested in how evidence forces people to change opinions and how people reject evidence'
Michael Taylor (@mhtaylor.bsky.social) discusses Impossible Monsters with Giles Fraser on @unherd.com podcast
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL6D...

Dinosaurs vs. God: The original culture war

YouTube video by UnHerd

www.youtube.com

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Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · Feb 28

‘As Taylor says, "if nothing but evolution separated humankind from brute animals, what was there naturally to separate the ruling classes from the masses?"’
Roger Lewis reviews Impossible Monsters in @telegraphnews.bsky.social
www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fi...

Dinosaurs ‘drowned in Noah’s Flood’ – so said the Victorian Church

Impossible Monsters captivatingly outlines how the unearthing of strange bones toppled traditional understanding of the origins of the world

www.telegraph.co.uk

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Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · Feb 28

'Taylor movingly tells us of the agony inflicted by scientific discovery on the "honest doubters", such as James Anthony Froude, who gave up his Oxford fellowship in 1849 rather than profess what he now thought was untruth.'
AN Wilson @thetimes.com
www.thetimes.com/uk/religion/...

Impossible Monsters by Michael Taylor review — the Victorian war between science and religion

A fresh take on the familiar tale of how Darwin and dinosaur bones shook the faith of Victorians

www.thetimes.com

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Duff Cooper Prize @duffcooperprize.bsky.social · Feb 28

‘Michael Taylor offers an elegantly written, compellingly readable account of the "culture war between the guardians of orthodoxy and the agents of change."’
Gerard Helferich reviews Impossible Monsters in @wsj.com
www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

‘Impossible Monsters’ and ‘Dinosaurs at the Dinner Table’: Fossils Versus Faith

As prehistoric bones were unearthed, some Victorians wondered about the timeline of creation and the nature of God.

www.wsj.com

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