Shortlist announced for the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize

The shortlisted books for the 69th Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize have been announced. Celebrating the best in non-fiction writing, the Duff Cooper Prize was established in 1956 in memory of New College Old Member, Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, GCMG, DSO (1890–1954). 

The judges, Artemis Cooper (Duff’s great granddaughter), Miles Young (Warden of New College), and historians Susan Brigden, David Horspool, and Minoo Dinshaw, have chosen the following: 

• 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)

Artemis Cooper, chair of the jury, says: 

“The shortlist this year is truly exceptional. In each case the author has shown not just deep knowledge of their subject, but the audacity to be different: to make startling connections and reveal the unexpected. We are delighted to celebrate these books because they will be read for decades — each one being a benchmark in its field.”

The winner will be announced on 3rd March 2025 and will then appear at the Oxford Literary Festival in conversation with Artemis Cooper on 4th March 2025. 

New College is the home of the Duff Cooper Memorial Fund which, generously supported by Pol Roger, is responsible for the £5,000 Prize. Duff Cooper read History at New College between 1908 and 1911, and benefitted from its culture of tolerance, its remarkable library, and the wide learning of its tutors.